
Class 
Book 



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CoEyiightlJ". 



C0FXRIGHT DEPOSm 



Indian Territory 

BUSINESS 
GUIDE. 




FOR THE 

homesee,ki:r 

AND 

INVESTOR 



PUBLISHED BV 

WESTERN PUBLISHING CO. 

POTEAU, INDIAN TERRITORY 



Price, $1.00 



INDIAN TERRITORY 
BUSINESS GUIDE 




FOR THE HOMESEEKER 
AND INVESTER 



Y.,^:>\^ W*^ 



Published by 

WESTERN PUBLISHING COMPANY 

Poteau, Indian Territory 



Price $1.00 



1 ' ,.-, h 

I" 'O 11- 



LIBHARY of CONGRESS 

Two CoDies Received 

APK 17 1906 

1^ Copyright Ent™^. 
CLASS CL XXc. No 

I 1^/3 3 / 

' COPY B. 



Copyrighted by 

JAS. W. HAI.E 

1906 



INDIAN TERRITORY 
BUSINESS GUIDE 



There are thousands of people in the United States 
who would like to know something of the Indian 
Territory more than can be gathered from its geo- 
graphical location and from what the newspapers say, 
and it is the purpose of this book to put the reader 
in touch with the true conditions that exist here today 
— and by studying it closely one can familiarize him- 
self with the country and obtain more knowledge than 
any way possible aside from coming and investigat- 
ing personally. 

It is the intention of the publishing company to 
furnish the homeseeker and investor a statement of 
facts as they exist here today and for that reason 
the company has secured write-ups from all of the 
cities and towns in the Indian Territory; most of 
them written by the mayors of the respective towns, 
giving a minute description of each town and vicinity, 

—3- 



showing what the town and country has at present, 
and what opportunities exist for the homeseeker and 
investor. 

It is furthermore the aim of the book to acquaint 
the reader with the laws and customs relative to the 
acquisition of lands and other property, and so in- 
struct him that should he desire to visit the Indian 
Territory he would not come a total stranger, but 
know what section of the country is best adapted to 
each one's calling or profession, and in this way make 
the book an account of such information worth many 
times its price to any such homeseeker or investor in 
whose hand it chances to fall. 



—4- 



Indian Territory 

It is not within the power of man to fully describe 
the Indian Territory for it has been so kindly favored 
by nature that even a person familiar with it discovers 
from day to day some hidden virtue or some un- 
known treasure which has been lying dormant and 
undiscovered which portrays the handiwork of the 
Creator and his thoughtfulness of his creatures, and 
which treasures when fully developed, will place the 
Indian Territory immediately upon obtaining state- 
hood, in the front rank with the foremost states in the 
Union, and populate her fertile valleys and prosperous 
towns with a prosperous and happy class of people. 

So many people have a superficial knowledge of 
the new country and the conditions which exist here 
today; they know it as the home of the remnant of 
Five Civilized Tribes of Indians, but overlook the 
fact that by different treaties with the United States 
Congress the tribal relations, heretofore existing, are 
practically all abolished, and that they are now United 
States citizens, and the' public domain, which they 
have for years been holding in common, has been 
devised and alloted to each member of the tribe. 

As the country has progressed in its crude and 
simple way (for lack of the necessary legislation and 

—5— 



proper advertising), the United States Congress has 
recognized its great natural resources, the induce- 
ments here for both capital and labor, and has made 
treaties with the Indians and passed laws (which will 
be explained more fully hereafter) which enables 
them to dispose of certain portions of their land to 
people seeking homes and investments, and as a con- 
sequence the country has developed more in the last 
five years than during the previous fifty. Capital and 
labor both have discovered the opening of the neces- 
sary avenues and today, where a few years ago was 
an undeveloped and undiscovered country, you might 
say, one will see a network of railroads, coal and 
other mines, working thousands of people, and good 
towns and cities springing up following development. 
According to the census of 1900, the population 
of the Indain Territory was 392,060, but since the 
recent act of Congress making it possible for white 
men to obtain good title to land, there is a great influx 
of people into this country, and, of course, the popu- 
lation now is considerably more. However, consider- 
ing the area and the natural advantages of the country, 
as compared with other states, it is very thinly popu- 
lated, and there is still plenty of room, and the pasture 
is yet green and opportunities are blossoming for the 
person with small or large capital and determination 
to succeed. 

The Indian Territory contains thirty-one thousand 
square miles, and the per capita allotment varies from 
one hundred and twenty-two in the Seminole Nation 
to three hundred and twenty acres of average land 



in the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations. As com- 
pared to the other states, the Indian Territory is 
twenty-nine times as large as Rhode Island, sixteen 
times as large as Delaware, six times as large as Con- 
necticut, four times as large as New Jersey, about 
four times as large as Alassachusetts, three times as 
large as Vermont, three times as large as New Hamp- 
shire, and three times as large as Maryland, has six 
thousand square miles more than Main, twelve thou- 
sand square miles more than South Carolina, is prac- 
tically the size of Indiana, and is four-fifths the size 
of either Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia, or Tennessee. 
The Choctaw Nation alone is larger than Rhode 
Island, Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, Massa- 
chusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont or Maryland. 

It has been said of the Indian Territory that 'Tt is 
beautiful for situation, faultless in climate and bound- 
less in possibilities, being free from the sultriness of 
the east and storms of the extreme west." But this 
is not all — Senator Goar in a statehood speech in 
speaking of the new country said in substance the 
following: 

"We have as fine coal as Pennsylvania, as fine oil 
and gas as Indiana, as fine timber as Oregon, can 
raise as good fruit as California, can produce as good 
wheat as Nebraska, can grow as good corn a« 
Illinois, can produce as good cotton as Texas, better 
Irish potatoes than Colorado, as good sweet potatoes 
as Georgia, can raise better cattle than Kansas, 
better mules than Missouri, as fast horses as Ken- 
tucky, and can boast of the richest women on earth." 

—7— 



This is not an idle jest of what, we, who live here 
think of our country, but it is corroborated and sub- 
stantiatedf by people who do not live in this country, 
but who for either purposes of business or pleasure 
have come here and made personal investigations. 
We quote from a speech of Hon. William M. Stewart, 
United States Senator from Nevada, delivered in the 
United States Senate January 10th, 1905, on the 
Statehood bill : 

''The Indian Territory is, I think, the lovliest sec- 
tion of the country that has ever been seen by mortal 
man. In resources it surpasses any other part of the 
United States, it abounds in oil, asphalt, coal and iron. 
It is the finest fruit land imaginable. It is equal to the 
best of California, and abounds in fruits of all descrip- 
tion. It produces cotton, and everything that is 
produced in the temperate zone. The finest cotton I 
ever saw grows there. I was told by experts in raising 
cotton that there is no other place in the United 
States where such fine cotton grows. On the Arkan- 
sas bottoms I saw five or six hundred acres, or a 
thousand, perhaps, of potatoes in one place. They 
raise two crops a year. They were as fine potatoes 
as can be raised in Colorado or anywhere else, and 
they come into the market almost as early as Ber- 
muda potatoes." 

We quote again from Senator Bailey of Texas. In 
his speech for single-statehood, he said: 

"And when they are joined (Oklahoma and Indian 
Territory) there is not one among the other common- 
wealths richer by nature than this new state. My own 

—8— 



opinion is that the Indian Territory is the richest 
spot on earth under the American flag today for the 
size of it. It is one of the few places on this continent 
that possesses ahnost every kind of wealth — coal in 
great abundance and of excellent quality , iron , I 
believe the greatest granite bed on earth , oil , asphalt, 
and all kinds of mineral wealth produced in any other 
section. And over these richest treasures in the earth 
there is the most fertile of soils, producing more 
abundantly those great products which contribute to 
the comfort, the health and pleasure of the human 
race than almost any other spot of equal size." 

We quote further from Ex-Senator Henry W. Blair 
of New Hampshire : 

''I was in Oklahoma City the 12th of July last and 
listened with keen interest to the proceedings of the 
great statehood convention, composed of delegates 
from the Five Civilized Tribes and from Oklahoma. 
There were more than a thousand of these delegates, 
for most part men of education and influence — shrewd 
lawyers, successful bankers, prosperous planters, 
wealthy merchants and solid looking gentlemen." 

The reader must bear in mind that this article is 
treating the Indian Territory as it now is and not 
what it will be when we get statehood. It is con- 
ceded by everyone that we will be made a state 
together with Oklahoma before Congress adjourns, 
and when that is done people will flock here as they 
do to every new country, and in a period of five years 

—9- 



the new State of Oklahoma will rank with the fore- 
most states in the Union, for it is a fact undisputed 
that we have more natural wealth, more inducements 
for both capital and labor than any spot of equal size 
on earth, which to see is to believe and to familiarize 
is to realize. 



-10— 



Towns and Cities 

Following is a complete list of the towns and cities 
in the Indian Territory arranged in alphabetical order 
and treated by the mayor or postmaster of each town. 
The publishers have insisted on fair and impartial 
write-ups and what is said of each town can be relied 
upon as facts. 

Ada 

Ada is one of the best towns in the Indian Territory. 
It is located in the Choctaw Nation and has a popula- 
tion of about 5,000, is only s^x or seven years old. 
It has two railroads, the Missouri, Kansas & Texas, 
and the Frisco. This is an excellent farming country. 
One of the largest cotton markets in the Indian Ter- 
ritory. Several gins, cotton compress, cotton seed 
oil mill. 

This is a good town and it would pay you to investi- 
gate its advantages. 



-11— 



Addington 



Addington is situated in the southwestern part of 
the Chickasaw Nation ; is a busy little town of six 
hundred people. It enjoys a beautiful location on a 
swelling hill above the fertile valley of Cow Creek 
and is surrounded by broad open prairies. The future 
of Addington is assured as there is more fertile, unde- 
veloped territory tributary to it than any other town 
in the Chickasaw Nation. 7^he big cattle pastures are 
at last being broken into and in less than two years 
one hundred and fifty thousands acres of land, which 
has been grazed up to the present, will be farmed in 
grain and cotton. 

From being the largest cattle shipping point on tlie 
Rock Island, Addington bids fair to become one of the 
largest cotton markets in the Nation. 

Near the town are inexhaustible deposits of brick 
shale , a dry press plant is now in operation with its 
capacity of twenty thousand a day is unable to supply 
the demand. The product of this plant has filled the 
demand for fancy front and extra good building brick 
in the territory tributary to the gas burned brick 
plants of this Territory and Kansas. Addington will 
undoubtedly become one of the greatest brick centers 
of the Southwest. There is pressing need at the pres- 
ent time for a first-class credit store. in Addington, 
and no better location could be found in the Indian 
Territory. We also need another cotton gin and grain 
elevator and a lumber yard. 

J. L. Evans, 

—12- 



Afton 

This town is in the Cherokee Nation and is located 
on the Frisco Railroad. It is in a very fine farming 
country and has a number of good stores. It is rapidly 
growing and has a population of about 1,500. 

Allen 

Our little Indian town of Allen, of about seven 
hundred and fifty inhabitants, is situated in the ex- 
treme northwest corner of the Choctaw Nation. Our 
town is surrounded by the most fertile country of the 
West, which produces an abundance of corn, cotton, 
wheat, oats, vegetables and especially fruits. The 
seasons are good — an entire failure never having been 
known. The water is good and easily obtained at an 
average depth of thirty feet. 

Our town has had fourteen years of steady growth 
and today we have two. gins, one saw mill, two grist 
mills, one shingle mill, one feed mill, two hotels, two 
barber shops, two blacksmith shops, one meat market, 
one bank, one livery stable, nine general merchandise 
stores, two restaurants, two drug stores, one lumber 
yard, two churches, one school house and a printing 

—13— 



office. With this we need a good canning factory and 
last, but not least, a railroad. This would be a good 
location for a flour mill and a central point for the es- 
lablishment of wholesale houses. With the abundance 
of good hard wood timber which surrounds our town 
would make this a desirable location for a furniture 
factory and other industries too numerous to men- 
tion could be successfully established here. 

We have a healthful climate, a good school and all 
who come are welcome. 

P. H. Deal, Mayor. 



—14— 



Antlers 



Antlers has a population of 1,500 people, and is 
situated at the foot of the Kiamichi Mountains and 
also located on the west bank of Kiamichi River and 
she is commonly known as ''Queen of the Kiamichi." 

Antlers is surrounded by fine agricultural land and 
does a large truck farming and regular farming busi- 
ness. Some of the best merchants in the southern 
part of the Choctaw Nation are located here. She has 
two large banks, two gins, planing mill, ice plant, and 
the best hotel on the Frisco road. 

The spring located near the depot and Harvey 
House has a reputation beyond the limits of the 
Indian Territory. 

Antlers is the gate-way for the finest virgin pine 
timber forest now located in the United States. 
Several large saw mills are contemplating locating 
here. Antlers has a large wagon factory now in the 
course of construction, also bids for an electric light 
and water-works franchise. 

Jake Easton, 
Secretary of Commercial Club. 



-15- 



Ardmore 

The summit city and the metropolis of the Indian 
Territory; located on the highest point between Gal- 
veston and Kansas City, surrounded by splendid ag- 
ricultural land, rich in oil, coal and asphalt. Ardmore 
has a population of over 15,000, three railroads, con- 
tract let for another and others coming; roundhouse, 
machine shops, waterworks and sewerage system, 
electric lights, electric railway under construction, 
telephone, excellent fire department, coal for fuel, as- 
phalt for paving, free school buildings now accom- 
modating about 2,000 pupils; magnificent church 
buildings, including most all denominations, colleges, 
Catholic academy, kindergarten, business college, Ma- 
sonic Temple, two daily papers, five weekly papers, 
free mail delivery, Carnegie library building, two mag- 
nificent hotels, finest and largest opera house in the 
Southwest, the home of commercial travelers for the 
Territory, home of all the officials for the Southern 
district, federal jail, Indian land office, United States 
court, and head-quarters for the Southern district, the 
strongest legal bar in the Southwest, thirty new brick 
business houses completed within the past year, oil 
mill, flouring mill, two round and three square bale 
gins, nine wholesale houses, ice plants, two cotton 
compresses, three National banks, three loan and trust 
companies, two steam laundries, two planing mills, 
two iron foundries, matress factory, broom factory, 

—16— 



candy factory, marble works, three bottling works, 
pottery works, artificial stone factory, two fire and 
pressed brick works, six lumber yards, and the largest 
cotton market from wagons in the world. Ardmore's 
growth has been solid, substantial and permanent, and 
offers rich field for progressive development in many 
lines, especially factories and wholesale houses, being 
centrally located and having cheap fuel and fine sur- 
rounding territory, with a large population daily 
increasing. 

All information cheerfully given by the mayor. 



-17- 



Atoka 

Atoka is one of the oldest towns in the Choctaw 
Nation, having been first established as a supply 
station by the government over forty years ago, and 
was the point from which much of the efficient mis- 
sionary work among the Choctaws has been carried 
on from that date to the present. It is and has always 
been from its inception the Treaty town for the Choc- 
law and Chickasaw Indians. Atoka has a population 
of 2,000 and growing rapidly. We have one of the 
largest furniture factories now in the Nation. 

We need water works, light plant, ice plant, good 
hotel building, steam laundry, brick plant, and some 
one with capital enough to build forty cottages for 
renting purposes. We have the M. K. & T. Railway, 
main line, and the Oklahoma City branch, and the 
Oklahoma Central Railway is now building and the 
Rock Island is building in this direction as fast as men 
and teams can. We are forty miles down the M. K. 
&: T. from South McAlester, and within one mile of 
the coal segregation. We have prairie to the west 
and timber to the east, all land being agricultural in 
character, it being the best of land for the growing of 
fruits, vegetables, berries, etc., in addition to its value 
for the cereals. 

-18- 



The citizens by blood of the Choctaw Nation are 
now having their restrictions removed, hence there 
are many of them in shape to sell their land, thus 
enabling the homeseeker to secure good lands with 
valid title, all of which redounds to the interest of 
the citizen as well as the actual settler, and the towns 
of this part of the Territory. 

The Commercial Club of Atoka invites corres- 
pondence from those seeking homes in a new country, 
also those that wish to make investments in either 
coal, asphaltum, gas, oil, or timber. 

A. W. AWMAN, 

Secretary of the Commercial Club. 



—19— 



Bartlesvilie 

This enterprising growing city is located in the 
northwestern part of the Cherokee Nation in the 
greatest oil and gas producing field on the globe and 
in the finest agricultural belt in the AA^est. The in- 
dustrial and business opportunities and merits of this 
five year old smokeless city, with its unlimited gas 
and oil and present population of 4,600, makes it im- 
possible to take care of the demand for homes and 
business houses and we cannot set forth all the ad- 
vantages and opportunities in the small space al- 
lotted in this issue of this unmatchable city. 

Bartlesvilie has the Santa Fe and M. K. & T. Rail- 
roads and others are coming. It has up-to-date system 
of water works, sewerage, gas and electric light plant 
and eleven manufactories and others locating; four 
banks, school houses, churches of every creed, cement 
and brick side walks and streets being paved with 
brick; first-class hotels and cafes and all classes of 
business making money. Business and residence lots 
reasonably cheap, no boom prices, no insane boom 
spirit is encouraged, but conservative methods onl)' 
gets the support of this people to get results and 
build up the city. 

Our city needs elevators, flouring mills, business 
—20— 



houses and more rental and purchasable houses, 
farmers, skilled labor, manufactories, needing cheap 
fuel, railroads and the same class of citizens it has 
now. Bartlesville is clean on this line, having no ob- 
jectionable classes of either white or colored, only 
that which is tramping trough the country and only 
stay where they find birds of feather to mingle with. 
When the people of Bartlesville believe in any im- 
provement of the city they get behind it and are con- 
tinually placing their money in improvements here, not 
in other places, and will build a city of 10,000 to 15,000 
in the next three years, beyond any question. Now 
since the Curtis bill settling the tribal affairs and re- 
moving the restrictions from above ten million acres 
of fine lands in the Territory, will pass congress, this 
land will be for sale after March 4, 1906, and with the 
Territory admitted with Oklahoma and the seeker for 
a home and the investor will find Bartlesville one of 
the most attractive and safest city to consider as it 
offers great opportunities and is beyond question the 
most enterprising, marvelous and smokeless city in 
the Indian Territory. 

G. T. OVERFIELD, 

Secretary of the Commercial Club. 



Bennington 



Bennington is a town of 1,000 inhabitants located on 
the Choctaw branch of the Frisco running east and 
west from Ardmore, Indian Territory, to Hope, 
Arkansas. The town is in the midst of a fine agricul- 
tural country; land on the north for fifteen miles is 
good grain land. On the west and east is a fine sandy 
loam good for corn and cotton and cannot be ex- 
celled for fruits and vegetables. On the south is the 
Blue and Red River bottoms for twelve and fifteen 
miles, that will raise one and two bales of cotton. The 
town is nearly three years old and the country just 
beginning to be developed. 

We have two good gins, one saw mill, etc. 

We need a plant to work up the hard wood close 
by. We need an electric light plant. Have local and 
long distance telephone. 

J. W. McKlNLEY, 

Mayor. 



—22- 



Bluejacket 



Bluejacket, Indian Territory, is an incorporated 
town of six hundred inhabitants located on the Mis- 
souri, Kansas and Texas Railroad, fourteen miles 
south of the Kansas line and about twenty-five miles 
west of Missouri line, surrounded by a very fertile 
country ; our principal products being corn, hay -and 
cattle. West two miles is being developed several 
thousand acres of choice coal land, which vein is 
fourty-eight inches thick and finds a ready sale in all 
the markets. We have a fine artesian well at a deptb 
of six hundred and fifty feet. We have struck a fine 
flow of oil producing a nice quantity, the results of 
which, at the present, we are unable to state, how- 
ever, it is stated by experts that we will have an ex- 
cellent oil producing country. 

We have a splendid opening for any good business 
man in almost any line of business and especially men 
with capital. 

We would be pleased to correspond with any one 
who wishes to get a home in the garden spot of the 
United States. 

J. N. Bunch, 

Mayor 



-2:^- 



Bokchito 



Bokchito, Indian. Territory, is located on a line of 
the Frisco Railroad twenty miles east of Durant, forty 
miles west of Hugo and fifteen miles north of 
Red River. 

It is situated on a high ridge surrounded on the 
east, west and north by a well populated, rich prairie 
and on the south it is heavily timbered. 

Blue River is only six miles from us and its low- 
lands are covered with dense forest. 

Our soil is both sand and black loam. 

We have an abundant supply of the best water there 
is in a radius of one hundred miles. Crop failure is 
unknown as cotton, corn and small grains grow boun- 
tifully. 

Our town has 1,000 inhabitants and is only three 
years old, but one of the prettiest in the Indian Ter- 
ritory, and the most beautiful one on the Frisco 
Railroad. 

We have local and long distance telephone, two 
gins, one saw mill (several in surrounding country) 
two grist miills, two National banks, sixteen brick 
stores and several wood ones. Many beautiful resi- 
dences. We have companies organized to drill for 

—24— 



oil, as we have been told by experts that our country 
here is a vast oil field. 

We need capital to help develop these hidden riches 
which according to indications are abundant in the 
bowels of the mother earth. We need an electric 
light plant; factories to work up our timber; a brick 
plant, for we have a supply of the finest kind of shale 
that can be found; an oil mill. 

Our people are from all parts of the United States. 
They are congenial and will take pleasure in pointing 
out these great opportunities to prospectors or capi- 
talists. We cordially invite you to visit our beautiful 
little town. 

M. J. Hamilton, 

Mayor. 



-25— 



Bokoshe 

Bokoshe is a new town with about seven hundred 
inhabitants located in the northern part of the Choc- 
taw Nation, twenty-seven miles west of Fort Smith, 
at the junction of the Fort Smith & Western and 
Midland Valley Railroads. It is beautifully located 
on the edge of a large prairie and is a very healthful 
place. It has plenty of wood and excellent water. 
The land immediately surrounding the town is prairie 
and hill land, especially adapted to fruit and truck 
farming. A little further away are thousands of acres 
of the richest bottom lands in the Choctaw Nation. 
Cotton is raised in abundance. Corn makes from 
thirty to seventy bushels per acre. The coal mines are 
fast developing at this place. There are three large 
slopes and one strip pit at work from which is taken 
several hundred tons a day. The new townsite has 
been opened and is being sold on liberal terms, so 
that the people can now get good title to their homes. 
Any one desiring a home can do no better than cast 
their lot with the people of Bokoshe. We desire to say 
further that we have good schools and churches and 
a law abiding people. Our rich resources will make 
Bokoshe the foremost town in the northern part of the 
Choctaw Nation. 

J. D. Shaw. 

—26— 



Boynton 



This town of 1,000 people is located midway be- 
tween Muskogee and Okmulgee, on the Frisco Rail- 
road twenty miles from either place and has excellent 
daily train service. 

The country tributary to this place cannot be sur- 
passed in the Creek Nation for farming purposes. 
Cotton, corn, wheat, oats, alfalfa, fruit and vegetables 
all do well here. 

We have abundance of coal at this place and all 
around us is found oil and gas in abundance and we 
have the best reasons in the world for supposing that 
the same abounds here. 

We now have good schools and churches, and the 
town is prosperous and there are many lines of busi- 
ness represented and which ofifer splendid opportuni- 
ties for men of enterprise and push. 

This town is located in the midst of the Freedmen 
alottments, hence there is more land for sale to which 
perfect title can be had than any other place we know 
of in this territory. People are coming here from all 
parts of the Union and doing well, why not you do 
the same? The land is very fertile and in many places 
similar to Illinois land in the corn belt. Good farm 
land can be bought at prices ranging from $20 to $30 

—27— 



per acre. This is for the best land. Land can be 
bought much cheaper for grazing purposes. 

Remember we already have an established town and . 
when you locate here you take no chances — while the 
new towns springing up in various places in this coun- 
try have not sufficient resources to make them ever 
pass the cross roads stage of progress. Do not forget 
that there is a prairie country around this town for 
twenty-nine miles in every direction. 

We have seven general stores , two hardware and 
impliment houses , two good banks , two drug stores , 
four livery barns, three meat markets, two furniture 
stores, one wide-awake newspaper, four doctors, 
three barber shops, three real estate firms; three 
blacksmith shops, two hotels, two restaurants, one 
millinery store, one bakery, etc. 

We need an elevatui , a flouring mill , another cotton 
gin, a brick yard, electric light and power plant, and 
above all at least 1,000 good farmers from any part 
of the Union who wish to better their conditions. 

Dr. J. A. Settle, 

Mayor. 



Caddo 



Caddo is located in the famous black land belt, 
is well built of substantial houses, its people are 
generous and hospitable , its climate being neither too 
hot nor too cold. 

Caddo has $15,000 brick school building, six teachers, 
three hundred pupils, seven hundred dollar colored 
school building, one teacher, sixty pupils. Free school 
nine months. 

Two National banks of $50,000 capital each, two 
bank and trust companies of ample capital , four 
churches, two Methodist, Baptist and Presbyterian ; 
two square bale gins , one round bale gin , total 
capacity, two hundred bales per day. Tirty-three 
large brick business and banking houses, six wooden 
and three iron, two wooden hotels of fifteen rooms 
each one brick hotel of thirty-seven rooms, two 
opera houses, one of brick; one brick blacksmith and 
machine shop ; three blacksmith shops ; two meat 
markets; four hundred residences, few vacant; six 
exclusive dry goods firms ; three racket stores ; five 
hardware and implement firms; three confectionery 
stores ; two furniture stores ; one bakery ; two lumber 
yards ; six general merchandise stores ; one good news- 
paper; one telephone exchange; three wagon yards; 



four restaurants; one electric light plant; one large 
frame Indian court house; trunk line of railway — 
The Katy — Tax rate $1.35; four lawyers, two dentists 
and eight doctors; two drug stores; six exclusive gro- 
cery firms; one photographer, two barber shops; two 
livery stables; and 1,700 people. 

Caddo needs an oil mill;flouring mill; cotton mill; 
another railroad ; more good farmers ; cabinet and - 
woodwork shops ; more houses to rent. 

Most of these stores in Caddo carry large and well 
selected stocks; and ofifer the farmers and others the 
lowest prices compatible with good goods. 

Caddo is surrounded by the best land on earth. To 
the north, east and west for miles we have the famous 
black waxy land, which yields large returns to the 
thrifty husbandman. To the southeast we have rich 
and mellow black waxy land, which is fine for small 
grain, cotton, corn, fruits and melons. To the south 
is good sandy hill land, well wooded, making wood for 
fuel very plentiful and is unsurpassed for truck and 
fruit growing. On Blue and Boggy Rivers we have 
as fine bottom land as anyone. All this land is fairly 
well watered and has enough timber for fuel, and rock 
for building purposes. No other place in the world 
has such a variety of excellent soil, and has such a 
variety of products. Most any of this land can be 
secured by good farm homeseekers either by lease, 
rent, or buying. At present most of it is cultivated 
under the lease system, but the time is here when good 
deeds can be made to the surplus lands. A good 
quantity of the land is now owned by non-citizens 

-30- 



eitheir by buying dead claims or inter-married surplus. 
Many Indian citizens have their farms well improved, 
and rent the land from year to year, to good farmers 
for a part of the crop which is very satisfactory. The 
yield is nearly always large, and as a general thing all 
the farmers make money, live well and enjoy life. 

Poultry, stock and hogs are prolific sources of 
wealth around Caddo. Many are making extra money 
this way, and relieve the burden when crops are not 
as large as expected. 

Caddo invites good farmers to come to her neigh- 
borhood, assuring them that their labors will be 
rewarded. 



—31 



Calvin 

Calvin is located thirty-one miles west of South 
McAlester, on the Rock Island Railroad, was platted 
in 1895 by Dennis Flinn and others of Oklahoma at 
the time of the building of the Choctaw Railroad. It 
is a town of about seven hundred and fifty inhabitants. 
We have eight general merchandise stores, two drug 
stores, one hardware and furniture store, two national 
banks, two blacksmith shops, two hotels, two church 
buildings, the Calvin Educational Society (incor- 
porated) conducted by D. M. Styer, principal; the 
Calvin Enterprise, a weekly newspaper; a milliner 
store , two restaurants, one butcher shop, one photo- 
grapher, two livery stables, two lumber yards, three 
cotton gins. 

The town is located on the south bank of the Cana- 
dian River and needs no recommendation to the cot- 
ton men as they know where to come when they want 
the best cotton that is raised in the Indian Territory; 
there was nearly six thousand bales of fleecy staple 
marketed here last year, and will be that much this 
year. The valleys of the South Canadian are very 
productive, averaging on ordinary years nearly a bale 
per acre, also forty to fifty bushels of corn to the acre. 
The county surrounding Calvin is being put in culti- 

—32— 



vation very rapidly. The M. O. & G Railroad made 
their final survey through Calvin, they guarantee that 
we will have a cross road within the next few months; 
this road is already completed from Muskogee to 
Dustin, Indian Territory. 

A. C. Smytiie, 

Postmaster. 

Cameron 

Cameron is located in the eastern part of the Choc 
taw Nation on the Frisco Railway. It has a popula- 
tion of about three hundred and is a good trading 
point, being surrounded by good farming country. It 
has two large stores, two cotton gins and one hotel. 
The water is good and scenery beautiful. 



—33- 



Canadian 

Canadian is situated on the M. K. 8z T. Railroad 
nineteen miles north of South McAlester, in the heart 
of one of the finest farming countries in the Indian 
Territory, it has the Canadian River bottoms on the 
north and west; the Gaines and Rock Creek bottoms 
on the east and south. 

The town has a population of eight hundred peo- 
ple, two nice churches, a fine school owned by the town 
and twenty-two business houses. 

Canadian annually received four thousand bales of 
cotton and is considered one of the best cotton mar- 
kets in this section of the country. 

Many cars of cattle and hogs are shipped from this 
city every year also several cars of peaches, water- 
melons and apples, as in and near the town are 
hundreds of acres of fine orchards. 

As yet there is but one-twentieth acre of land 
through this section in cultivation and when it gets 
the land in cultivation near it, it is destined to be 
one of the best towns in the Indian Territory. 

M. C. Young, 
Secretary of Commercial Club. 



-3i- 



Catoosa 

Catoosa is a flourishing little city near the point 
where the Frisco crosses the Verdigris River. It has 
six hundred inhabitants and very bright prospects. 
We have six good stocks of general merchandise, 
bank, two drug stores, lumber yards, two hotels, two 
large cotton gins, a good newspaper, livery barn and 
many small lines of business. 

We have unlimited amounts of as good coal as is 
mined in the Indian Territory. This coal seems to 
be everywhere. Wells in town have been dug through 
it. We also have a very generous flow of gas from 
a well within a half mile of town. Drillers are now 
going down for oil. 

We want a flouring mill, a brick plant to utilize our 
shale, of which there is an abundance and the gas to 
burn them with; a saw mill to put in virgin timber, 
more merchants, more mechanics, more farmers and 
more cotton raisers and more people to develop the 
oil, gas and coal fields. 

Every courtesy will be extended to Dcrsons visiting 
our little city and any information of a special nature 
freely and cheerfully given. 

W .W. Whitman, 

Postmaster. 



-35— 



Chant 

The beautiful picturesque city of Chant is thirty- 
eight miles west of Fort Smith, Arkansas, on the 
main line of the Fort Smith & Western Railway and 
is one of the best towns on that line, and in fact the 
best mining town in the Southwest. The mines are 
owned and operated by the Sans Bois Coal Company, 
which has invested $2,000,000 here. One hundred 
and six coke ovens are in operation and one hundred 
more building. The pay roll exceeds over $30,000 per 
month. The coal is the smokeless type, high per 
cent carbon, especially adapted to steaming purposes, 
and makes excellent coke. The vein runs from five 
to eight feet in thickness and the supply seems in- 
exhaustible. 

The location is healthy and we have very little 
sickness. The town is four years old, and has a popu- 
lation of about 2,500. Churches and schools are well 
represented. The Masons, Odd Fellows, Knights of 
Pythias, and Woodmen of the World, all have good 
strong lodges. The local union of mine workers have 
a membership of about three hundred. 

Chant has an abundance of good soft water, no 
place in the Idian Territory offers better inducement 
to the homeseekers than Chant, as there is an 
abundance of fine timber near at hand, and is sur- 
rounded by fine agricultural land as there is in the 

—36- 



Indian Territory, which yields the finest crops of corn, 
cotton, fruits, vegetables, and grains, and in fact, 
every product, known to the temperate zone. 

Chant needs a good newspaper, good hotel, and 
capital invested to develop her vast resources. 

Checotah 

This town is located in the Creek Nation and on 
the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroads, about half 
wa}^ between Muskogee and South McAlester. It 
has a population of about tw^o thousand and is a 
great business point. Some very fine land tributary 
to the town. Has been a great stock country until 
recently, but now it is being settled by farmers. 

Chelsea 

This is another good Territory town and is located 
on the Frisco Railroad in the Cherokee Nation. It 
has a population of a little less than one thousand. If 
you are thinking of locating in the Indian Territory 
come and let us show you what we have to ofifer in 
the way of inducements. 



-37- 



Chickasha 



Chickasha, as the center of this most wonderfully 
fertile country, is naturally a city of more than usual 
interest to the farmer, the workman, the manufacturer 
and the investor. Chickasha was born in 1892, and 
therefore but thirteen years of age. The location of 
the city is one of great commercial importance, both 
locally and as a wholesale and manufacturing center 
occupying as it does the logical distributing point for 
a large and wonderfully rich southwestern territory. 

Speaking in general terms and in a conservative 
manner, it is safe to say, all things considered, there 
is not a better all-around agricultural country any- 
where in the United States than that surrounding 
Chickasha. There is a natural cause for this condi- 
tion. We are in the heart of the famous Washita 
Valley country, through which the Washita River 
flows, and on either side of which are wide rich val- 
leys. This river runs within one mile of Chickasha 
and always carries a good supply of pure water. The 
valley lands average from three to five miles wide, 
gradually running back to the uplands, which are of 
a rolling nature. The valley lands are a rich, dark 
chocolate sandy loam very easily cultivated and 
adapted to the growth of almost every conceivable 
kind of agricultural product. This valley land all has 

—38— 



an ever-lasting sub-irrigation, yet is not subject to 
overflow. 

In the days of her infancy Chicasha was builded to 
a large extent of a cheap class of buildings. As time 
went on conditions grew more settled and new enter- 
prises were established, better buildings were put up, 
until at the present time a large per cent of the old 
structures have given way to newer and more modern 
buildings. The main business section is now com- 
posed of handsome ones two and three-story brick 
buildings, modern in finish and appointment 
Throughout the residence section, too, may now be 
seen large numbers of neat cottages and handsome 
substantial two and three-story residences with spa- 
cious, well improved grounds. 

Happily Chickasha was laid out ''square with the 
world," and has eighty and one hundred foot streets 
and avenues. These broad streets make it possible to 
park on either side of the thoroughfare and make of 
our streets avenues of great beauty. This work has 
now commenced and will be pushed forward each 
year, until within a few years Chickasha can be made 
one of the most beautiful cities in the entire 
Southwest. 

The local topography of the city is good, the main 
business section, with the railway stations, mills, 
elevators, compress, gins, shops and the wholesale 
district lying in the valley, which the residence sec- 
tion runs back to the rolling upland on to what is 
commonly a high, healthful altitude well removed 
from the main business section. 

—39— 



As something of an index to the character of 
Chickasha, and to show what has been accomplished 
in a brief thirteen years under many handicaps, we 
note below some, of the leading industries and insti- 
tutions of the city. A $90,000 municipal water plant 
and sewer system, four fine two-stor}^ brick school 
buildings, including a high school with commercial 
course, employing over thirty teachers ; Roberts Busi- 
ness college ; Catholic school and several private 
schools; a $10,000 Carnegie Library; a new $20,000 
Christian church building; a $5,000 Congregational 
church building; a $20,000 M. E. church now build- 
ing; a Presbyterian church; a Baptist church, a Cum- 
berland Presbyterian church ; an Episcopal church ; 
a Catholic church ; an unusually large Elk lodge, with 
beautiful lodge rooms and parlors; an Odd Fellows 
lodge ; a Masonic order ; a K. of P. lodge ; a Wood- 
men lodge; a Carnegie Library Association; a 
Twentieth Century Club ; several society clubs ; pass- 
ing to the commercial interests of the city we have : 
The Santa Fe Railway system ; the Frisco Railway 
system; the Rock Island Railway system, with round- 
house, shops and division, employing in all several 
hundred men, with a monthly payroll of $60,0(X); the 
Oklahoma Central; the Katy and others coming; the 
Chickasha Cotton Oil Company's big oil mills; one 
of the largest cotton compresses in the Southwest; 
three fine cotton gins ; the Chickasha Milling Com- 
pany's plant with 1,000 barrel capacity per day; the 
Choctaw Flour & Feed Company ; two large elevators, 
ten or twelve cotton firms ; the Chickasha Shale Brick 

—40— 



Company; the Chickasha Iron Works; the Electric 
planing mill ; marble works ; cigar factory ; broom fac- 
tory ; two steam laundries; the Chickasha oil and gas 
company, capitalized at $60,000; the First National 
Mining Company, capitalized at $1,600,000; two na- 
tional banks ; the Chickasha Trust Co., bank ; the 
Bank of Commerce; United States courthouse; a fine 
electric light plant; a new modern gas plant; two long 
distance and one local telephone systems ; two express 
offices; two telegraph lines, with two offices; five big 
lumber yards; two daily and three weekly news- 
papers; three job printing offices; a good opera house; 
baseball park ; fair grounds ; eight hotels ; twelve 
boarding houses; two hospitals; a street railway as- 
sured ; thirty-three wholesale, manufacturing and com- 
mission houses; a large number of up-to-date stores 
and shops of all kinds, drawing trade from twenty to 
thirty miles in every direction. First, last and greatest 
of all, a live, hustling Commercial Club of over one 
hundred energetic business men who do things. 

S. Howard Leech, 
Secretary Commercial Club. 



—41- 



Choteau 

Choteau, a thriving- little tOAvn with three hundred 
happy and prosperous people is located on the main 
line of the M. K. & T. Railroad, half way between 
Muskogee and Vinita in the Cherokee Nation. Has 
two large mercantile companies who are doing busi- 
ness in up-to-date and modern brick buildings and 
who conduct their business in regular department 
store fashion and each company's annual sales will go 
over the $50,000 mark. There are two good grocery 
stores, two banks, two drug stores, one bakery, one 
racket store, one barber shop, one livery stable two 
blacksmith shops, a real estate exchange, two good 
churches, and a good school with a corps of four good 
teachers. 

Chouteau is located high and sightly and has a 
natural drainage each way from town. Choteau Creek 
one mile north is skirted with timber which empties 
into the Grand River two miles east of town which 
is one of the prettiest streams in the Indian Territory. 
The soil surrounding Choteau is mostly prairie land 
except along the creek and river — where rich black 
sandy loam is found which never fails to produce a 
good crop. Our prairie land is very productive — one 
man having raised this year a crop of corn where the 
corn averaged a little over fifty bushels to the acre and 
some of the stalks grew to the height of eighteen feet. 

The M. O. & G. R. R. will build through Choteau 
this year paralelling the M. K. & T. R. R. from Wago- 

-42— 



ner to Choteau where it bears east to JopHn, Missouri 
Choteau needs a good up-to-date livery stable, and 
elevator, a strictly up-to-date modern little hotel, a 
first-class barber shop and bath room, a first-class 
lumber yard, a coal, wood and feed yard, a good ex- 
clusive hardware and implement establishment and 
good up-to-date farmers who want to do business in 
a hustling little town, which is conceded by all who 
have seen it to be the best town of its size in the 
whole United States, this is making a broad asser- 
tion but nevertheless — it is a positive fact that Cho- 
teau has better business houses and finer residences 
than any town of its size in the United States — Come 
and see for yourself. 

^ W. R. Samuel. 



—43- 



Claremore 

This town is in the Cherokee Nation and has two 
railroads. It has a population of two thousand and 
like most all the towns of this new country is grow- 
ing very rapidly. It is here that the famous radium 
wells are located and the waters are shipped most all 
over the United States. Many wonderful cures are 
reported from these waters. This is a very delighful 
country and if you want to visit the Indian Territory 
for health, pleasure or business you should by all 
means see Claremore. 



a- 



Clarksville 



Clarksville is situated twelve miles west of Musko- 
gee, two miles north of the Arkansas River and seven 
miles south of Verdigris River. Population, seven 
hundred and twenty, two schools, four churches, five 
general stores, four grocery stores, one blacksmith 
shop, one butcher shop, two barber shops, one 
corn mill. 

Soil east, west and south most in cultivation and 
said to be most fertile tract in the Territory of its 
size. Land sells from $20.00 to $40.00 per acre. Re- 
strictions removed from practically all lands as it 
belongs to freedmen. Fine opportunity for good 
farmers. Cotton gin needed badly. At least half of 
land cultivated to cotton. Corn produces from forty 
to eighty bushels per acre. Coal and wood abundant. 
Good opportunity for poultry raisers and dairymen. 
The soil is mostly a black sandy loam with clay foun- 
dation and last but not least water — soft water — 
second to none. 

L. P. Strahorn, 
Secretary of Commercial Club. 



—45— 



Coalgate 



Coalgate, a city situated in the west central part of 
the Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory, presents the 
greatest inducements for the investment of capital, 
large or small, in business enterprises or manufactur- 
ing industries of any town in the great Southwest. 

It's manifold natural advantages in the way of 
building material, fuel, mineral deposits, timber, stone, 
clay, railroad facilities and fertile agricultural land 
surrounding, are not equaled anywhere in the United 
States. 

The opportunities for the investment of capital, with 
a certainty of a sure, safe and highly profitable return, 
are numberless and all the statements made in this 
prospectus will bear the strictest scrutiny and the 
closest investigation by the most cautious business 
man or investor. 

Coalgate is not an experiment, but is already a 
prosperous city, which has had a rapid and solid 
growth ever since the townsite was segregated, 
where every cent invested has been profitable to the 
investor and where but one bankruptcy has occurred 
in its history. Every mercantile, banking, manu- 
facturing, mining or other enterprise is thriving and 
none of the owners desire to sell out or leave the city. 

—46— 



Coalgate has a population of 8,000 with suburban 
towns which would bring it to 10,000. Has three rail- 
roads already in operation, with two more projected, 
which will probably be built within a year; has mines 
employing 1,500 operatives with a payroll of from 
$60,000 to $100,000 per month ; a foundry and machine 
shop; a planing mill and handle factory; a vitrified 
brick plant; three newspapers; a water works plant in 
course of construction ; a telephone exchange ; a large 
wholesale house ; bottling works ; steam laundry ; 
three banks; more than a hundred mercantile firms; 
cotton gin ; all the religious denominations (repre- 
sented by good congregations ; thirty fraternal organi- 
zations, and many other features desirable in a city. 

Coalgate ships more coal than any point in the 
Indian Territory. There is an area of forty square 
miles of segregated coal lands contiguous to the city, 
twenty of which, is under operation. There are 
twelve shafts in operation, one of which is the best 
equipped and most modern west of the Mississippi 
river. When mines are running to their full capacity 
2,000 operatives are employed, who draw from $2 to 
$7 per day ; pa}^ day occurs every two weeks and the 
money thus destributed in the channels of trade makes 
business brisk in Coalgate when it is stagnated in 
other towns in the Territory. New developments are 
being made and the industry will increase in import- 
ance for years to come. 

We need an ice plant; a good flouring mill; a 
modern opera house; an oil mill; a mattress factory; 
a crockery factory; an ice cream manufactory; a can- 

—47— 



ning factory ; an excelsior factory ; a furniture factory ; 
a handle factory; a wagon factory; a marble yard; 
several wholesale houses; a tile factory; a tannery; a 
shoe factory; capital to construct an electric line be- 
tween Coalgate and other mining towns — great op- 
portunity. And all other industries that can utilize 
our timber, clay, stone, and cheap fuel. 

Commercial Club. 



—48- 



Colbert 



Colbert is in the Chickasaw Nation, eight miles 
north of Denison, Texas, three miles north of Red 
River, on the M. K. & T. Railroad and one and one- 
half miles east of Pick Wick, on the Frisco Railroad. 
It has a population of about three hundred and fifty 
prosperous people ; nearly every family own the homes 
they live in. It has a National bank and all lines of 
mercantile trade is strongly represented ; it has good 
schools and a town of churches and societies — nearly 
all denominations and orders have organizations here. 

As a trading point it is beyond any town of its 
size in thfs part of the country and has an unlimited 
supply of pure and wholesome water; health is un- 
excelled. 

The country east and west is timbered and to the 
north is prairie, produces any crop grown in this part 
of the continent, including an abundant variety of 
fruits and vegetables — heavy shipments of cotton, 
grain, potatoes and corn are made from here every 
year. We have never had a crop failure. Colbert was 
the first town platted by government in the Chicka- 
saw Nation. Never has been incorporated and we 
have no officer of any court here; do not think we 
need one as law suits and brawls seldom invade our 
peaceful domain. 

J. D. Coleman, 
—49— 



Collinsville 



This town is in the Cherokee Nation and located on 
the Santa Fe Railroad. It has a population of a little 
less than two thousand people. It is surrounded by 
an excellent farming country. Most all lines of mer- 
cantile business are represented, but there is an open- 
ing here for most any business enterprise. When you 
visit the Indian Territory you should come and see 
us for we can ''show you" better than we can tell 
3^ou of the advantages we have to offer. 



Comanche 



Comanche is a good town of about two thousand 
people and is located in the Chickasaw Nation near 
the Oklahoma line. It has one railroad, the Rock 
Island. The farming country around this town is of 
the best. 



-50- 



Cornish 

Cornish is located thirty-five miles west of Ardmore, 
in one of the most fertile regions of the nation. The 
soil is gray loamy, sandy, with a clay sub-soil and is 
well adapted to the raising of most any kind of crops 
and more especially adapted to fruit and vegetables 
of all kinds. Cornish has a population of about five 
hundred people, about twenty business houses, two 
hotels, two blacksmith shops, two livery and feed 
stables, one bank and another organized to begin busi- 
ness. We have a public free school with something 
over one hundred scholars in attendance. One school 
building and one church house with four religious 
denominations organized. One I. O. O. F. hall and one 
A. F. & A. M. hall. One telephone exchange now 
under construction ; two gins having ginned something 
like 1,000 bales of cotton this season, one lumber yard. 

We invite gooi citizens and biis'ness men to come 
and join us. We need a good brick yard, besides 
several other business industries. Come and join us 
in making this one of the largest and best towns of 
the Indian Territory. 

L. E. Davis, 

Mayor. 

-51- 



Cowiington 



The town of Cowlington is situated in the northern 
part of the Choctaw Nation, Central district of the 
Indian Territory. We have north of our beautiful 
city the Arkansas River with its good farming lands. 
East and south we have the Cache Prairie and the 
bottom lands. West we have the mountains and Sans- 
bois bottom land. Cowlington is on a high summit 
with seven hundred inhabitants. We have six busi- 
ness houses and a high school building with W. O. 
W. hall over it. We can boast of having one of the 
best free schools in the Territory. Our school con- 
tinues about eleven m.onlhs in the year. 

Our gin plant is one among the best industries in the 
Choctaw Nation, capacity 1,250 bales per year. Our 
town is mostly farming class. Health is good, water 
good. Our town is incorporated Kvith competent 
officers — will just say here that we have a good law- 
abiding town. We can boast of some nice buildings. 
Our lands produce from eight hundred to 1,800 pounds 
of cotton to the acre. Corn twenty to seventy-five 
bushels per acre. 

We need n:orc immigration. 

James F. Bridges, 

Mayor. 
-52- 



Coweta 

Coweta is rapidly coming to the front and is one 
of the best little towns in the Indian Territory. It 
has a population a little less than one thousand and 
is located in the Creek Nation on the Missouri, Kan- 
sas & Texas Railroad. It is situated in an excellent 
farming belt and it would pay farmers who are hunt- 
ing new location to look into the advantages we have 
in the way of land. 



Crowder City 



Crowder City is a new town in the Choctaw Nation 
of the Indian Territory, at the intersection of the 
Fort Smith & Western and the M. K. & T. Railroads, 
eighty-three miles west from Fort Smith, Arkansas, 
one hundred and thirty-four miles east from Guthrie, 
Oklahoma, forty-seven miles south of Muskogee, In- 
dian Territory, and one hundred and ten miles north 
of Denison, Texas. We are situated in the segregated 
coal fields, oil fields and gas field. We also have an 
inexhaustible supply of timber, cheap lands, running 
water, building material, educational facilities, tvv^o 
trunk lines of railroads — geographical center of the 
Indian Territory — a health resort, a splendid bank, 
a commercial club, a city corporation and ample hotel 
facilitits. 

Byars & O'Neal, 

—53— 



Davis 



Davis is seventy-two miles south of Oklahoma City, 
sixty-eight miles north of Gainesville, Texas, sixty 
miles west of Coalgate, and eighty miles east of Law- 
ton, Oklahoma, and within five miles of the geogra- 
phical center of the Chickasaw Nation, Indian Ter- 
ritory. It is in the heart and center of the largest agri- 
cultural belt in the Southwest. The city is situated on 
a high plateau overlooking the Washita Valley, and in 
plain view of the Arbuckle Mountains. Turner Falls, 
the great health and pleasure resort, is near by, and 
will soon be connected with the city by an electric 
line. A visit to Davis and Turner Falls will con- 
vince anyone that this is truly the "Garden of Eden." 

Commercial Club. 



-54- 



Dougherty 

Dougherty is located on the Gulf, Colorado and 
Santa Fe Railroad, twenty miles north of Ardmorc. 
We are in the famous Washita Valley— a fine farming- 
country. The Brunswick Asphalt Mines are two and 
one-half miles east of us and the crusher rock quarry 
four miles south. 

We need a good hardware and implement house. 
Cotton is the principal crop. We have a never failing 
supply of water at a depth of twelve to eighteen feet ; 
three general merchandise stores, one drug store, one 
gin and mill, two physicians and one hotel. 

J. W. Breedlove, 

Mayor. 



-55— 



Duncan 

Duncan, the border Queen of the Indian Territory, 
is situated in the western part of the Chickasaw Na- 
tion within two miles of the Oklahoma line, and on 
the main line of the Rock Island Railroad. This town 
has a population of 2,700 persons wht) are prosperous 
and contented, law-abiding and religious. Duncan is 
located in one of the richest farming sections to be 
found in the Southwest and is adapted to the cultiva- 
tion of cotton, corn, wheat, oats and other cereals; also 
fruits and vegetables in abundance. The people are 
cultured and hospitable and the standard of educa- 
tion high, the public school with an attendance of 
seven hundred pupils being the pride of the commun- 
ity. The taxable wealth of the town, not including 
lands, is $447,225. The railroad receipts at this place 
are the largest of any station on the Rock Island Rail- 
road, between Chickasha and Bowie. The yearly cot- 
ton receipts average twelve thousand bales. Duncan 
boasts of a first-class water works system, an electric 
light and power plant, a fire department, local and 
long distance telephone systems, a cotton oil mill ^al- 
most completed, a roller flour mill with a capacity of 
100 barrels per day, a splendid nursery, a United 
States commissioner's court, an up-to-date opera 

—56— 



house, two national banks, two newspapers, three 
splendid modern hotels, three cotton gins, a $15,000 
public school building in course of construction and 
all lines of business represented, though not sufficient 
for the demands of the trading community. For the 
past five years Duncan has been rapidly forging to 
the front as a commercial and educational point. It 
has no empty dwelling or business houses but a live, 
progressive citizenship that is increasing to such ex- 
tent as to fill up every habitable nook and corner of 
the city. It has been rightly named the Border Queen 
of the Indian Territory. 

J. N. Duncan, 

Mayor. 



—57- 



Durant 

There is no reason why any one should fail to visit 
Durant if they are looking for a good town and as fine 
black land as can be found anywhere. It has two 
railroads, the Missouri, Kansas & Texas and a branch 
of the Frisco. It has a population of about 6,000. In- 
vestigate this town. 

Earl 

""The town of Earl is situated in the Washita Valley, 
on section sixteen in township four, south, range four, 
east. The soil is very fertile, it being black sand. 
The principal products are corn and cotton. All kinds 
of garden vegetables are successfully grown. The 
town is in a healthy location. It is well watered by 
wells, the depth of which, are from thirty to thirty- 
five feet. 

The town wants a good cotton gin and grist mill 
also a general merchandise store or two. There are 
forty families in the town and a thickly settled country 
surrounding it, and it only has one store. The town 
also wants a good physician and blacksmith. 

Geo. W. Collins, 

Postmaster. 
—58- 



Elmore 

Elmore is situated sixteen miles southwest of Pauls 
Valley, near the forks of Rock and Spring Creeks, 
surrounded by very fertile soil and has good timber 
and water. We have six mercantile houses, two black- 
smith shops, two wagon yards and one hotel. We 
need a good hardware store, a large general store, a 
furniture store and also a dealer in good horses. No 
one ever fails to accumulate money and means in this 
country who uses proper industry and economv. 

J. P. Gibson, 

Mayor. 

Eufaula 

Eufaula is located in the Creek Nation and on the 
Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad. It is sur- 
rounded by a very fine farming country and is a good 
business point. If you want to go into business this 
is a good point. It has a population of 1,500 and is 
one of the towns where the United States court is held. 



-^9- 



Featherston 



Featherston is a new town in the central part of 
Choctaw Nation on the Fort Smith & Western Rail- 
road. It was opened last year and the town is grow- 
ing nicely and property rapidly increasing in value. 
The country tributary to Featerston is mostly prairie 
land and most of it undeveloped and uncultured — 
being used in the past as large ranches, but since title 
can be had and the town started farmers are drifting 
this way and the future looks bright. 

Need more good farmers. Write the postmaster. 



-60- 



Fitzhugh 



" Fitzhiigh, a small village of about three hundred 
inhabitants, is located on the St. Louis & San Fran- 
cisco Railroad ten miles from Ada and five miles from 
Roff. The surrounding country is very rich and pro- 
ductive, the soil is a rich, black limestone. The prin- 
cipal crops are cotton, corn, wheat, oats, Irish and 
sweet potatoes, all kinds of vegetables, fruits etc. 
We have a good school building which is also used for 
church purposes the upper story for I. O. O. F. and 
W. O. W. hall. We have a good school six to nine 
months in the year. 

We have a good grocery store, three general stores, 
one drug store, two blacksmith shops, and one gin. 

We need a hotel, one or two general merchandise 
stores, a bank, a livery and feed stable. It is a good 
location for a canning factory, as the soil is admirably 
adapted to fruits and vegetables of all kinds. The loca- 
tion is as healthy and the soil as productive as can 
be found in the Indian Territory. 

J. F. Neel, 

Postmaster. 



-61- 



Fort Gibson 

This is one of the oldest towns in the Indian Ter- 
ritory. It was for a number of years a government 
post and many men who w^ere at one time stationed 
there in the early days afterwards made history in the 
great struggle during the sixties. It has a population 
of about 1,000; tw^o railroads, the Iron Mountain and 
a branch of the Frisco. There is some as fine land 
as eye ever beheld near there. 



-62— 



Fort Townson 

Fort Townson is a thriving little city of about 1,000 
people situated upon the summit of a hill overlooking 
the fertile valleys of Gates Creek. It is surrounded 
on the east and w^est by rolling black prairie lands and 
on the north by pine capped hills, at whose base the 
mills of lumber companies cut the mighty pine forest 
into merchantable product, while just to the south of 
the town lies the loamy bottoms of Red River. It is 
also here that you find the celebrated, Chalybeate wat- 
ers that gush in crystal streams from the springs, which 
are noted for miles as possessing medical virtues of 
rare quality. We are surrounded by the finest farming 
and timber lands, and the only thing we need is capital 
to uitlize the timber, and place here a hardwood fac- 
tory. Proper inducements will be given any one who 
desires to engage in the timber business. The large 
planing plant of the Wright Lumber Com.pany is 
situated here. The Kiamichia Land Company is doing 
good vv^ork in trying to induce immigration to this 
part of the country ; their office is here and any and all 
letters received by them will be cheerfully answered. 
And the climate is good, land cheap and work plenty. 
We also have a good school system, good churches and 
a high moral class of people. 

E. A. Carter, 

Mayor. 



Francis 

This is a small town located on the Frisco Railroad. 
Has a good farming country. A good locatin for most 
any kind of mercantile business. 



Grant 

Grant is located on the St. Louis & San Francisco 
Railroad four miles north of Red River. The town 
has a population of one thousand and is being con- 
tinually augmented by homeseekers, investors and set- 
tlers that are attracted to this section by the agri- 
cultural land and business opportunities. 

The rich bottom land of this section is unsurpassed 
for its fertility and in the production of the staple pro- 
ducts it is unsurpassed; while the uplands extending 
through the section in which Grant is located will, 
with favorable conditions produce a bale of cotton to 
the acre. 

The underground water supply is abundant. It is 
found at a depth of from twenty to seventy feet. It is 

—64— 



soft and pure, very palatable and entirely free from 
alkali or vegetable matter. 

We have a number of substantial business firms and 
need more of them. A stave mill would do a good 
business. An oil mill would prove a profitable in- 
vestment. 

Beautiful Roe Buck Lake, one mile from Grant will 
soon become the resort of the Indian Territory for 
pleasure seekers. 

The need of this town and surrounding country is 
great for active progressive citizens. 

To those who have the courage to break away from 
unfavorable conditions, we can furnisli an environ- 
ment that will make you strong, hopeful men, who 
can succeed in building independence for yourselves 
and your families. 

We are necessarily limited in this description and 
we hereby extend to you and yours a cordial invita- 
tion to come and see, 'The eating the pudding is the 
proof thereof." 

J. L. Dickson, 

Mayor. 



—65— 



Grove 

Situated on the Frisco Railroad, Cowskin Prairie, 
surrounded by good timber, two miles from Grand 
River and about four miles from Cowskin River, has 
fine spring water and is as healthy a town as there 
is in the Territory. Rich in mineral and other natural 
resources. Wheat, corn, oats and hay are staple crops. 
Fine orchard lands adjoining the great orchard lands 
of Arkansas; timber, fine building stones, cheap town 
and farm property; good schools and churches, and 
ideal climate for a permanent home. Land rents at 
$2 per acre. Our needs : Hustling farmers and more 
capital for development. 

The soil is black, rich loam and very fertile. Clover, 
timothy and blue grass do well. Come to the new 
state and locate at Grove. 

W. H. Morgan, 

Mayor. 



—66- 



Quertie 

Guertie is an inland town of about four hundred 
inhabitants. Situated in the extreme northwest por- 
tion of the Choctaw Nation. Guertie has a good 
school system, fine health, good society and as fine 
water as the Rockies. Guertie has an excellent farm- 
ing land to support it. 

We have five general stores, one grocery, one drug 
store, one canning factory, fine gin and saw mill 
plant, bank, restaurant, good hotel, and two black- 
smith shops. We will soon be listed as a railroad town, 
as we are on the M. O. & G. Railroad survey which 
road is now under way of construction. We need 
more capital. 

This is a fine place for men with money. We 
invite you to our town. 

Postmaster. 



— «7— 



Haileyville 



Haileyville is located near the center of the Indian 
Territory in the Choctaw Nation, on line of Rock 
Island Railroad at the Junction of Ardmore Branch 
with the main line. It is a division point, with shops, 
round-house and repair yards, employing three hun- 
dred men that have their homes here. Population of 
Haileyville is 1500, three churches and graded school 
with four teachers, two banks, one wholesale grocery 
house, five hotels, numerous stores and shops of all 
kinds, two livery stables, bottling works, ?ce plant 
and electric light plant. Electric street car line passes 
through the town. The Haileyville Ola Coal Com- 
pany headquarters are here and employ about four 
hundred men with a semi-monthly pay roll of ten to 
fifteen thousand dollars. In fact this town is in the 
midst of a vast coal mining district, containing a 
population of at least six thousand people within a 
radius of seven miles. The output of coal from this 
district will reach into hundreds of cars daily. The 
land in this vicinity is somewhat broken, even moun- 
tainous, with plenty of timber scattered over the hills. 
An abundance of water. The valleys are largely 
prairie lands and very fertile. The bottom lands along 
the creeks are all very rich and productive. A large 

—68— 



portion of all these lands will soon be for sale. It 
will then present fine opportunities for all kinds of 
homeseekers. The large population of wage earners 
affords splendid markets for everything to eat, drink 
and wear. The town needs a good blacksmith shop, 
lumber yard, opera house. Any manufacturing in- 
dustry where cheap fuel and plenty of water, timber, 
stone, brickclay, is an object — should investigate. 

t A. HOWER^ 

Mayor. 



Hartshorne 

Hartshorne is a town of about four thousand people 
and is well surrounded with farming country as good 
as can be found. We have in our town electric lights, 
street cars, coal mines and our mining industries are 
very fine — having two shafts, slopes and mines all 
around our town. 

What we need are people to work the mines and 
till the soil, and we need foundries and manufactories 
to manufacture iron casings, lime, cement, brick, ice, 
and light lumber furniture. We need water works, 
flouring mill, thrasher, laundry, and we need so badly 
north and south railroads for we have prospective 
iron, zinc, copper, lead and asphalt undeveloped. To 
any one who wants to come here will be heartily 
welcomed and we will try to locate him in any kind 
of industry that he might want to start. 

C. R. Hunt, 

Mayor. 



—70- 



lieavener 

Heavener, a town of about seven hundred popula- 
tion is situated at the terminus of the Arkansas West- 
ern branch of the K. C. S. Railway and on the main 
line of the K. C. S. Railway, about ten miles west of 
the state line and just half way between Mena and 
Fort Smith. 

Heavener has nine general stores, one drug store, 
two restaurants, two hotels, two blacksmith shops, 
three barber shops, two livery stables, one butcher 
shop, one newspaper, one bank, two large gins, two 
coal mines, a large planer and a telephone system that 
reaches over the country in nearly all directions from 
twelve to twenty miles. Among other advantages 
there is a large, two-story school building and an ele- 
gant church building. School lasts ten months in the 
year and over one hundred and fifty students are en- 
rolled. 

The chief industries are farming, stock raising, min- 
ing and saw milling; and the principal agricultural 
products are cotton, corn, hay, potatoes and fruit. 
Vast amounts of valuable pine and hardwood lumber 
is being manufactured by the ten large saw mills near 
town. 

Heavener being in a bend of the famous Poteau 
—71— 



River makes it one of the best cotton markets on the 
K. C. S. Railway. Between three and four thousand 
bales of cotton are marketed here annually. 

Heavener needs a feed store, a jewelry store, a 
bakery, a harness shop, another drug store, a hard- 
ware store, a confectionary store and several more 
general stores. 

For further information address 

Arthur Johnson, 



-72— 



Henryetta 



Henryetta is located in the Creek Nation on the 
main line of the Frisco where the M. O. & G. inter- 
sects. It is a town of 1,500 people and is five years 
old. We have seven coal mines in successful opera- 
tion and they find coal all the way from ninety to 
two hundred and sixty feet deep. It is a fine grade 
of soft coal with little sulphur in it ; the vein averaging 
about forty-eight inches in thickness. We also have 
two wells that supply us plenty of valuable gas. 

The soil is of a dark sandy loam in the valleys and 
any product such as corn, cotton, potatoes and all 
kinds of fruit grow well here, and truck and fruit 
growing could be made very profitable if it was 
properly followed. 

Along the hills and the creek we have a growth of 
hickory, oak and cotton wood timber that the mill 
men are cutting up into lumber. The country with 
the shale that underlies the soil near the town is 
first-class for the manufacturing of brick and is said 
by experts who have examined it to be equal to the 
shale at Coffeyville, Kansas. 

We have one two-story stone school building, two 
new churches, eighteen store and brick business build- 
ings and two good banks. The town is in good con- 
dition it being practically out of debt. 

W. R. Davis, 

Mayor. 
—73— 



Hickory 



Hickory is a beautiful little town located on the 
Frisco Railroad sixty-five miles north of Denison, 
Texas. Its population is 1,000 and growing rapidly 
every day. The people are a good class with moral 
habits, and industrious. They believe in good schools 
and churches. We have one of the finest school build- 
ings in the Chickasaw Nation. Climate is very mild. 
We have mostly prairie country ; the . elevation is 
about 1200 feet, which makes a fine climate. Soil is 
very fertile — a fine sandy loam and occasionally black 
or mixed land. Valleys which the world cannot ex- 
cel for richness. It is adapted for corn, cotton, wheat, 
oats, barley, rye, clover, alfalfa and sorghum. Fruit 
and vegetables do well here, this country is destined to 
rank among the first as a fruit country. 

We have several general merchandise stores and 
two cotton gins and room for more. 

We need a good hardware establishment, a first- 
class drugstore, furniture house and a $10,000 hotel 
and a canning factory. 

We certainly have the coming country for home- 
seekers. 

T. M. Lattimore, 

Mayor. 
—74- 



Holdenviile 



Holdenville is not a paper town with the bkie canopy 
of heaven for its principal asset, but a real, live, vigor- 
ous and thrifty municipality with a population of 
3,000 people, made up of the restless spirit of the west 
and the metropolitan spirit of the east in a marked 
degree. 

It is built on an admirable townsite. It stands on a 
series of modern elevations with picturesque surround- 
ings. Its substantial business structures indicate the 
faith of their builders and owners and represent an ex- 
penditure of near a million dollars. Perfect title can 
be had to property, and. most of the people own their 
own homes. Opportunities for investment are con- 
tinually being taken advantage of. Many who have 
their eye on this fine farming section and who are 
lying in wait to buy farm lands make Holdenville 
their headquarters from which they operate. 

Holdenville is nicely situat'ed as a jobbing center 
on account of its shipping facilities. It is at the cross- 
ing of the two great systems of railway — the Saint 
Louis and San Francisco and the Rock Island, en- 
abling quick aud easy access to Kansas City and Saint 
Louis on the north, Memphis on the east and all 

—75— 



points south and west. These facilities are rapidly- 
developing the fruit and garden industries for which 
the country surrounding Holdenville is well adapted. 
The consequence of these facilities is a growing 
city, keeping pace with the development of the sur- 
rounding country, and destined to continue its growth. 

No less remarkable and noteworthy is the continued 
wealth of sunshine, almost throughout the year. At 
the very moment these lines are penned, the climate 
is mild and agreeable, while large portions of the coun- 
try are wrapped in the cold chills of January blizzards, 
snow and ice. Even in the heated summer season, the 
cool breezes from the southern waters render the 
nights cool and refreshing. The climate is semi- 
tropical. 

With true and American instincts, the citizens of 
Holdenville have provided for the education of their 
children. A $10,000 public school building is main- 
tained, directed by an able corps of teachers. 

The moral and spiritual life of our people is safe- 
guarded and nurtured by seven substantial church 
buildings with as many flourishing and prosperous con- 
gregations. Fraternal organizations are numerous and 
have a strong devoted membership. 

Holdenville has an electric light system, a municipal 
waterworks, three gins, a union passenger station, 
five well patronized hotels, a well regulated telephone 
system with long distance connections, a jobbing 
house, a large number of exclusive and department 
stores, three national banks, a trus^; company, two 
abstract companies, a fire department, bottling works, 

—76— 



marble works, a nursery, an acetaline plant and other 
industries. 

If asked to point out the source from whence such 
a community draws its sustenance, we would point to 
the fertile, wealth producing soil, that surrounds the 
town ; the climate which seems as though based on 
neutral ground ; the congenial, enlightened and pro.- 
gressive people who came here in hot pursuit of riches 
and a betterment of their condition, but vie with each 
other in friendly rivalry for the emoluments of honest 
toil. 

J. B. Martin, 

Mayor. 



—77— 



Howe 

This town of 2,000 people is in Sugar Loaf county 
at the crossing of the Kansas City Southern and Choc- 
taw, Oklahoma and Gulf railways, 333 miles south of 
Kansas City, Mo. The country surrounding it is 
open prairie limited in area by the Sugar Loaf moun- 
tains and is very rich in coal deposits, which are be- 
ing worked on an extensive scale. The soil is very 
fertile and suitable for general farming and stock 
raising. As the lands have not yet been allotted to 
individual owners, no land valuations can be made at 
present. The principal business of Howe, is the ship- 
ping of coal and of agricultural products. The in- 
crease in population during 1904 has been 200 in town 
and 350 families within a radius of five miles. The 
improvements consists of a new coal mine, cotton gin, 
hotel, grist mill, telephone service, church, and two 
business buildings. Local shipments have increased 
ten per cent. 

There are wanted at Howe a racket store, lumber 
yard, milliner, feed store and a poultry raiser. 

Write for information to 

Bank of Howe. 



-78— 



Hugo 



Hugo is one of the promising towns of the south- 
east Indian Territory, being the junction of the Paris- 
Fort Smith and A. & C. branches of the Frisco Rail- 
road, has a division, round house and machine shops, 
with a pa>^ roll of $20,000 a month, a support which 
supplemented by the other pay rolls and advantages 
gives a flattering promise of this being a town of no 
mean commercial advantages. The business interests 
relying on the advantages of having many factories 
have lost no opportunities in locating every one pos- 
sible ,and now we have a large handle factory, stave 
factory, planing mill, compress, electric light plant, 
two gins and an ice plant and cold storage is being 
installed by the Anheuser-Busch interests. 

Two strong banks are located here which at their 
last report to the comptroller of currency and at the 
dullest part of the year, showed deposits aggregating 
more than $200,000, an unerring index to the prosper- 
ity of this section. 

The timber industry is one of great importance to 
our town ; many thousand dollars have been expended 
in its development and yet the work has only fairly 
begun. The fertile soil surrounding the town is equal 
in productive power to the high priced lands of the 

-79— 



states, and yet owing to its undeveloped condition it 
can be purchased at startling low figures. All the 
cereals and fruits can be grown in paying quantities, 
in fact, this will some day be the center of the fruit 
growing section, making a very desirable location for a 
canning factory; but there is hardly a line of industry 
that would not prosper here. But the one most pro- 
pitious, the one most susceptible of development with 
continued prosperity to the ones interested is the farm- 
ing industry. There are thousands of acres of rich, 
fertile land, both improved and unimproved, that with 
the removal of restrictions, which is sure to be done 
this year, can be bought for almost nothing. 

The town was established in the fall of 1902 and 
has enjoyed a steady growth from that time until 
now; it has a population of 3,500 progressive people, 
and many citizens coming in on every train. 

The Commercial Club, a strong organization of bus- 
iness men, will be glad to correspond with any one 
interested in any way in this section. 

JUDSON L. WiLBANKS, 

Secretary of Commercial Club. 



^^C~ 



Idabel 

Idabel is a little town of about eight hundred in- 
habitants located on the Frisco System, being forty- 
three miles east of Hugo and the same west from Ash- 
down, Arkansas. 

Idabel is surrounded by a belt of good farming land. 
Red River is only about eight miles south and has a 
fine bottom land as was ever known. Little River 
is four miles north, but not near so good bottom land. 
The gravel hills immediately surrounding the town 
are of an extra good grade of hill land. The timber 
business is quite a prominent industry. 

We have two bottling works, two hotels, two livery 
barns, a bank and about twenty-five general merchan- 
dise stores. We are in need of a telephone system and 
electric light plant. 

Our town is about three years old. We have a 
nine months public school each year; four lodges, 
Masonic, K. of P., W. O. W. and I. O. O. F. Two law 
firms and one real estate office. Contracts have been 
let to erect fourteen more brick buildings in the near 
future. Best opportunity in the world for men of 
capital to invest. 

Daniel B. Straw^n^ 

Post Master. 
-81— 



Kemp 



The town of Kemp is situated twenty miles south of 
Durant, Indian Territory, and twelve miles east of 
Denison, Texas. The nearest railroad shipping point 
is Ambrose on the M. K. & T. Railroad six miles south. 
Kemp is surrounded by a large scope of country 
adapted specially to cotton, corn, fruit and berries, 
and small grain. As fine corn grows in the Red River 
bottom as can be found in any country. Alfalfa 
lias been tried in a small way but on the east 
six miles in Texas it does well, and the farmers make 
large crops, in fact, this is given up to be among the 
finest farming lands in the Indian Territory but not 
more than one-fourth of the land is in cultivation — 
and we need five hundred good farmers at once to lease 
and put in cultivation the lands within five miles of 
our town nearly one-half of which is river bottom 
land. 

We have two gins, six general stores, one drug 
store, four churches, a fine school house, a Masonic 
lodge, I. O. O. F., W. O. W., I. O. P., one bank and 
three Sunday Schools and as good people as any town 
and the best water in the Central District; no mos- 
quitoes to molest the nights rest. We want you to 
ask about it; think about it and then come to see 

-82— 



about it. Health is very good. Most of our sickness 
is chills and fever. 

Kemp has one hundred and fifteen acres platted and 
not a vacant lot in town. 

While we need farmers to open the farms the busi- 
ness in town is not overdone in any line. In 1904 the 
merchants sold one hundred and ten thousand dollars 
worth of goods and farm tools. The two blacksmith 
shops have plenty of work, in fact, the only business 
in town that is short on trade is the undertaker. 

S. T. Johns, 

Mayor of Kemp. 



-83- 



Kinta 

Kinta is situated in the Choctaw Nation on the Fort 
Smith and Wesetrn Railway. It has a population of 
about five hundred people and is surrounded by good 
farming country, the soil being adapted to corn and 
cotton. The town is new having sprung up in the 
last two years since the completion of the Fort Smith 
& Western Railway. The town has several up-to-date 
buildings and mercantile establishments and like many 
other towns in the new country promises to double 
its population immediately after obtaining statehood. 

The community needs more capital invested which 
would net the investor handsome returns. 

Write the postmaster. 



—84— 



Kiowa 

Kiowa is located on the M. K. & T. railroad sixteen 
miles south of South McAlester, Indian Territory; on 
the highest land between Saint Louis and Galveston ; 
the dividing point between the Arkansas and Red 
River. Her position is perfect for drainage and the 
health cannot be surpassed by any locality in the 
southwest. Her advantages are wonderful though not 
well known as much of the land around the town is 
in a virgin state, and high undulating prairies have 
been found wonderful for their production of crops of 
all kinds, the yield being phenominal in many in- 
stances. It is a well known fact that Kiowa is sur- 
rounded by a fine quality of coal which only a'waits 
capital and the miners pick to place it on the market. 
Kiowa has never experienced a boom — her growth has 
been slow but healthy and today she is a modern little 
city of fifteen hundred inhabitants. She has a graded 
school, four churches, two banks, a telephone ex- 
change, two cotton gins, twenty-one business houses 
of all kinds. Her citizens are wide awake but not 
plungers — always taking a proper pride in the growth 
of their town and using all available means to further 
its interest. Unlike other towns Kiowa is not plagued 

—85— 



with factionalism. There is only the proper amount of 
rivalry among the business men of the town to be 
helpful, which if carried to extremes amounts to sec- 
tional strife and is hurtful and acts as a damper to 
any town's progress. Kiowa is a good town, Kiowa 
is a growing town, Kiowa has the backing. Come to 
Kiowa if you are a good citizen, and the glad hand 
of welcome will be extended. 

S. P. Ross, 
Secretary of Kiowa Commercial Club. 



—86— 



Krebbs 

Krebbs is one of the oldest mining towns in the 
Indian Territory. It is in the mining belt that sur- 
rounds South McjAlester. It has two railroads, Mis- 
souri, Kansas & Texas and the Rock Island . A popu- 
lation of about 3,000. The town is supported mainly 
by its mining industries. 



-87- 



Lehigh 



Lehigh the greatest coal producing town in the 
Choctaw Nation or the new state of Oklahoma, is also 
the metropolis of the Lehigh Valley farming country 
and surrounded by every natural advantage for fac- 
tories. It has three railroads, and three more sur 
veyed. Railway shops and divisions making it the 
most important pay roll town in the Indian Territory. 
The beginning of year 1907 will see Lehigh with a 
laborers pay roll of one million dollars annually; be- 
sides the fine farming and timber and grazing inter- 
ests. The opening of the immense coal lands sur- 
rounding Lehigh to actual farmers in tracts of not 
less than ten or more than six hundred and forty 
acres, one-fourth cash the balance in three annual 
payments without interest will give farmers an op- 
portunity to acquire farms direct from the govern- 
ment. These are the provisions of a bill now before 
Congress. 

One hundred thousand acres of coal is adjacent to 
Lehigh and half million tons annually is now being 
mined and the output being rapidly increased. An 
opening prevails for all kinds of factories, especially 
a foundry, machine shop, wood working plants, large 



creamery, wholesale grocery and feed stores, three or 
four live merchants in any line. A good milling propo- 
sition is open here and water works and electric sys- 
tem. The town has a business population of 4,000 and 
all classes of institutions and business is represented. 
The town of Lehigh today has more to offer investors 
and a better outlook for the immediate future than any 
town in the Indian Territory. 



Lindsay 



Lindsay a four year old city with a population of 
2,000 progressive people is situated in the beautiful fer- 
tile Washita Valley. Eighty thousand acres of Wash- 
ita bottom within a five mile radius. Has the Santa Fe 
and Rock Island Railways and a third line under sur- 
vey from Oklahoma City to Wichita Falls, Texas. 

Lindsay is represented in about all retail lines. Has 
four cotton gins and two cotton yards, two large corn 
elevators. 

This city is now ready to support an electric light 
and ice plant, water works and manufacturing indus- 
tries. The country tributary is rapidly settling up and 
is rich and productive, suitable for corn, cotton and the 
finest of orchard land. So far this season 6,000 bales 
of cotton and 400,000 bushels of corn has been 
marketed here. Several cars of live stock being 
shipped from here. 

This is the brightest spot in all the Chickasaw Na- 
tion. 

Inquiries gladly answered and information given. 

L. W. Spalding. 



-90— 



McAlester 

This is a town of two thousand population and is 
on the M. K. & T. railroad one mile north of South 
McAlester, and at the junction of the Wilburton 
Branch of the M. K. & T. Railroad in the center of the 
MdAlester coal fields. This coal is in inexhaustible 
quantities and the best coal for all purposes than can 
be found anywhere in the southwest. We have an 
abundance of good water for all purposes and the 
best and cheapest fuel for all purposes than can be 
had anywhere. 

This is a good site for machine shops, grist and 
flour mills, a splendid stand for a wholesale feed and 
grocery store. 

This place is located in the midst of a group of towns 
which all together have some thirty-five thousand peo- 
ple. We think that manufacturing interest of almost 
any kind ought to do well here, as we have all facili- 
ties for such enterprises. 

Our town is surrounded by a good agricultural 
country. It will grow cotton, wheat, corn and most 
all the cereals. Fruits of most all kinds do well here. 
Never saw garden vegetables grow any better any 
place. We have eight to ten months of school every 
year and is supported by taxation. 

—91— 



This is as healthy a place as can be found anywhere 
in this country. 

The town and surrounding country are rapidly set- 
tling up. 

J. R. Hurley, 

City Clerk. 



-92- 



McCurtain 

McCurtain Is located on the Fort Smith and Western 
Railroad, half way between Fort Smith, Arkansas, and 
the crossing of the Fort Smith and Western and the 
M. K. & T. Railways, near the eastern end of the Sans 
Bois mountains, extending thence in an unbroken bar- 
rier westward to Blocker. 

McCurtain is the only Government townsite on the 
Fort Smith & Western between Crowder and Spiro, 
and is located in the very center of the greatest de- 
posit of the coal in Indian Territory. 

The Sans Bois Coal Company is now operating 
mines here and have under lease about six thousand 
acres of coal land underlaid by a five foot vein of coal 
and have now in operation two hundred and ten coke 
ovens, and are shipping coal to all parts of the United 
vStates and the Republic of Mexico, cannot half way 
supply the demand. It is estimated by experts that 
within a radius of five miles of the town of McCurtain 
there is coal enough to furnish the United States for 
one hundred years. 

The surface of the land about McCurtain, although 
somewhat broken, is well adapted to all kinds of fruits, 
vegetables and other crops. 

—93— 



Considering the geographical location of McCurtain, 
the quality and quantity of coal surrounding it, the 
productiveness of the soil, the healthfulness of the 
locality and the financial standing of the Sans Bois 
Coal Company — there is every reason to believe that 
the company that has just secured a franchise for an 
electric light plant, has made a wise investment as well 
as all others who come here to make this great Eldora- 
do of the Black Diamond their future home. 



-94- 



McQee 

This town was founded about thirteen years ago. 
It is a beautiful inland town situated midway between 
Pauls Valley and Ada, Indian Territory, and has the 
distinction of being the best inland town in the Indian 
Territory. The country surrounding on the west and 
south as well as east is a prairie country, very fertile, 
producing everything commonly grown in the south- 
west. The distance to Pauls Valley is twenty miles 
west and is traversed with skirts of timber — post oak, 
black jack and a few groves of pecan and hickory 
trees. The distance to Ada is twenty miles east which 
distance is skirted with prairie and timber. McGee 
is eight miles from Byars which is our nearest railroad. 
McGee for several miles is unexcelled by any town for 
the fertility of its soil. The finest watered country 
anywhere to be found, nearly all being free stone 
water. 

The town is incorporated. Three good churches, one 
national bank, splendid school, dry goods and grocery 
houses, one drug store, two gins, one barber shop and 
one hardware house. We also have our quota of up- 
to-date physicians, ministers and other public servants?. 

McGee claims further the distinction of being the 
home of the state manager of the W. O. W. as well 

—95- 



as the home of fraternal orders, as nearly all fraternal 
orders are represented at McGee. In short McGee 
represents a class of business men, wide-awake and up- 
to-date, whose pride and ambition has always been 
to be in the front rank in the onward march of pro- 
gress, prosperity, law and order arid has the happy 
distinction of enjoying a high state of society which 
is shown by the social cast of its people. 

A. C Cromer, 

Mayor. 



—96- 



Madill 

This town is located in one of the best agriculturtil 
countries in the Indian Territory. It is a great cotton 
market and thousands bales of fleecy staple are shipped 
from here each year. There is no better place any- 
where for a person who desires to engage in busi- 
ness than this town. 

We need good farmers to open up and help develop 
this new country. 

When you start to the Indian Territory let your 
ticket read Madill. 



—97^ 



Marble City, Cherokee Na= 
tion, I. T. 

Population, 1906 — 350, three-fourths of whom have 
located there in the six months preceding March, 
1906. The headquarters of five marble quarrying com- 
panies, which when in full operation will employ 700 
to 800 men in the quarries. During 1905 about 100 
houses have been built and half a dozen new stores 
have been opened for business. A saw mill, cotton gin, 
grist mill and lime kiln have been put in operation 
and about $75,000 have been expended in machinery 
for developing the marble beds. The new town is 
growing rapidly and it is estimated that at least 2,500 
people will be dependent on the marble industry. The 
adjacent country is good agricultural land. 

There are now good openings at Marble City, for a 
lumber yard, a drug store, a hardware store, first-class 
barber, a larger stock of groceries, a larger stock of dry 
goods, a butcher shop, a lawyer, a small bank and a 
good doctor. 

Write for information to 

Marble City Development Co., 

Marble City, I. T. 



Marietta 

This town is in the Chickasaw Nation and is on 
the Santa Fe Raih'oad. It has a population of nearly 
two thousand. Has a very fine farming country. It 
is well represented in most all mercantile lines, but 
not crowded. It would be to your interest to look into 
the business opportunities that this town ofTers. 



-99— 



Marlow 

Marlow, Indian Territory, situated thirty miles 
south of Chickasha, on the main line of the C. R. I. 
& P. Ry., population 2,000, free school with three 
hundred and seventy-five pupils attending, five church 
organizations and buildings, two banks, all kinds of 
retail mercantile establishments, Acme Cement Plas- 
ter Company's factory, water works, two cotton gins, 
an elevator, and electric lights arranged for, cotton 
receipts 5,000 bales this year, 7,500 last year. 

Soil a sandy loam suited to general farming. As 
fine fruit grows in Marlow townsite as will be found 
anywhere ; corn, wheat, oats, cotton, melons, broom 
corn and fruit are chief products. 

Needed. College, flour mill, canning factory, ice 
plant, creamery, steam laundry, brick plant and some 
good business houses for rent. 

W. B. Anthony/ 

Mayor. 



—100- 



Miami 

Miami is located in the northeast corner of the 
Territory in the Oiiapa Agency. It is a court town, 
regularly terms of the court being held here. It is 
situated on the banks of the Neosho River and this is 
a river which contains considerable timber and is a 
very beautiful stream. We have within three miles 
of town the biggest Jack Mine in the southwest un- 
der development. The vein is nine to thirty feet thick 
and runs as high as sixty-two and one-half per cent 
Jack. The country surrounding Miami is excellent 
for farming producing all kinds of crops. Miami has 
water works, electric lighting plant, ice plant and has 
one mile of macadamized streets. The population is 
2,200 with eleven churches and the finest public school 
in the Indian Territory. Nine school buildings which 
are paid for and which will accommodate six hundred 
children, and a high degree of education can be had 
at this school. We also have the finest opera house 
in the Indian Territory, two banks and a good class 
of citizens to live with. We have no saloons or joints 
and hope to never have any. 

A. G. Martin, 

Mayor. 

—101— 



Milburn 

Situated on the banks of the beautiful Blue River, 
in the heart of a marvelously rich farming country,, 
destined to become a manufacturing center.. The his- 
tory of the development of Milburn is tmique, founded 
only four years ago at a picturesque spot where the 
Rock Island Railroad crosses the beautiful Blue River. 
Milburn has demonstrated the wisdom of the selec- 
tion of a location where thousands of acres of fertile 
lands can be depended upon to maintain a city and the 
inexhaustible supply of water-power in the rushing 
Blue River shall be made to turn the wheels of mills 
and factories. 

No town of equal size in the Indian Territory has 
built more substantial hotels and business houses and 
more elegantly furnished homes; transacted a larger 
volume of business ; or attracted a more energetic, pro- 
gressive class of people. The amount of retail trade 
and the quality of farm products handled has been 
little short of wonderful. 

Sandy loam, black waxy, and bottom lands abound, 
-which produce annually large crops of cotton, corn, 
wheat, oats, and vegetables. There are many excel- 
lent opportunities for investment in real estate and 
business enterprises, especially in mercantile and man- 
ufacturing lines. 

M. H. Williams, 

Mayor. 
—102- 



Mill Creek 

Mill Creek is situated in the Chickasaw Nation on 
the Frisco System of railway. Has a population of 
1,500 progressive people whose intention it is to build 
a city. The town is surrounded by an excellent farm- 
ing country, the soil being especially adapted to cot- 
ton and corn. 

Already have two banks and a number of modern 
buildings and up-to-date merchants. 

Farmers should investigate the country which sur- 
rounds us and men with money can find investments 
which will net a handsome dividend either in land or 
town property. 

Write to the Post Master or Mayor. 



—103— 



Minco 

Minco is a prosperous little village of six hundred 
people, situated in the northwestern part of the Chick- 
asaw Nation near the Oklahoma line on the Chicago, 
Rock Island and Pacific railroad. 

Has two banks and other good business establish- 
ments all making money. 

Farming land around Minco is adapted to stock 
raising and also grows corn and small grain and some 
cotton. Have plenty of vacant land for farmers seek- 
ing better advantages. 

Write Post Master. 



104— 



Muldrow 

Mtildrow is a town of 1,000 people, situated in the 
southern part of the Cherokee Nation, on the Saint 
Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway. The 
farming land around Muldrow is good, on the north 
is the high land and prairie on the south. The Ar- 
kansas River bottom which is very fertile produces 
cotton and corn in abundance. 

Muldrow is a good trading point, beside a nice place 
to live. The town has good buildings, good school 
facilities and progressive class of people. 

Need more farmers and more manufactories of any 
kind. Everything is new and now is the time to come 
and join us in making a little city. , 

Write the Post Master or Mayor. 



—105— 



Muskogee 



A ''looker on" in Muskogee these piping days of 
prosperity, or the man who Hves in the "states" has 
no adequate conception of the progress this city has 
made within the past half decade just ended. The 
man who sees or he who hears of it through the 
multitudiious avenues by which Muscogee has passed 
into fame takes these things as a matter of course, for 
have not the towns in the states the same advantages, 
the same improvements, the same evidence of human 
progress? 

But when comparisons are made, which are gener- 
ally odious — to the other fellow — it then becomes ap- 
parent that Muskogee has out-stripped even the most 
flourishing cities of the country in its endeavors in the 
past five years. To a stranger within our gates and to 
the people who know not the history of this town, the 
following figures, statements and statistics will un- 
fold a tale of wonderment and hold them as spell- 
bound as the Ancient Mariner held the wedding guest. 

The federal census of 1900 gives Muskogee at 4,878 
population. The December 1905 places the number of 
people of Muskogee at 20,000, and the publisher states 
that while he is certain that there is a population of 
22,000, still he prefers to err on the side of conserva- 
tism. 

—106— 



The remarkable strides in valuation of real estate 
in this city, one of the best evidences of permanent 
growth, are herewith given : For the year 1902 the 
assessed valuation was $1,758,153; 1903, $2,543,288; 
1904, $4,530,710; 1905, $5,704,246. The real and per- 
sonal property for the year 1902 assessment amounted 
to $2,900,000 in round numbers ; for real and personal 
property for 1905 the figures show in round numbers 
$8,500,000. 

Careful estimates by competent authorities place 
the value of buildings erected and other improvements 
for the year 1905 at $615,000. This places Muskogee 
fourteenth in the list of cities in the United States ac- 
cording to population. In January, 1900, there were 
but four brick or stone business houses in the town, 
with a total frontage of 900 feet. On this date there 
are one hundred and thirty-two stone and brick busi- 
ness houses with a total frontage of 11,420 feet. 

Within the past five years Muskogee has given for 
railroads and other industries, and has paid for the 
townsite, all of which amounts to $500,000. January, 
1900, there were two banks in Muskogee with a com- 
bined capital of $228,000, and deposits, $400,000. To- 
day there are seven banks and trust companies with 
a combined capital of $860,000, with deposits aggre- 
gating $3,000,000. For the calendar year of 1900 the 
postoffice recipts were $8,191.72; for the calendar year 
of 1905, they were $38,158.26, and it is believed by the 
first of March Muskogee will have an office of the 
first class. As it is the Muskogee postoffice handles 
more mail and more business than any other town in 
the two territories excepting one. 

—107— 



Over $1,200,000 were paid out to the "bucket bri- 
gade" last year in Muskogee as against $60,000 in 1900. 
This amount does not include clerks and stores or 
local concerns,, but railroads, factories, government of- 
fices and territorial agencies of different foreign cor- 
porations. 

There has been spent for water and sewers the past 
five years over $400,000. The city has built and fully 
equipped three fine school buildings at a cost of $100,- 
000 within the past two years. Within the past three 
years the city has built a city hall and fire department 
building and maintained a modern and well equipped 
paid fire department. Over $100,000 was voluntarily 
spent the past twelve months on street paving. 

January, 1900, there was just two ways to get in 
and out of Muskogee by rail. There are now nine 
different ways of ingress and egress by rail, not includ- 
ing the Electric Traction line or by water on the 
Arkansas River. The valuation of railroad property 
in Muskogee has increased the past five 3^ears from 
$120,000 to $800,000. 

Five years ago there was one industry that was run 
by electricit}^ Today there are thirty-five different 
manufacturies of various sizes using electric motors. 

Within the past year over eleven miles of street rail- 
way were built and the equipment is equal to the best 
in the United States. The past two years have seen 
four churches compleed at a cost aggregating $110,000, 
including the pipe organs which have been installed 
in each. 

—108— 



An entire new telephone system was completed last 
year at a cost of $150,000, with a complete long dis- 
tance connection. Over $500,000 was spent the past 
two years in oil tanks, oil refineries and developing the 
local oil field. 

There are more pupils attending the four denomina- 
tional colleges located at Muskogee and the public 
schools here than any other towns in the two territor- 
ies, with the possible exception of one. An increase of 
2,000 in three years. 

The freight and passenger receipts at Muskogee for 
1900 was $400,000. For the year just past the amount 
foots up to over $2,000,000. The express companies 
have within the past five years advanced from $22,000 
up to $101,000. The uptown telegraph offices have 
been established since 1902, and three uptown express 
offices. The Federal Government has expended $50,- 
000 the past two years in buildings in Muskogee, and 
pays $15,000 per year rent. 

Muskogee now pays one-twentieth of all the fire 
insurance premiums in the Indian Territory. 

Muskogee has built, since 1901, within a radius of 
six miles, four steel rail and wagon bridges at an ag- 
gregate cost of $150,000. Over $10,000 was spent last 
year on the improvement of streets, boulevards and 
tracks, outside of the brick paving. There has been 
invested in new industries in Muskogee within the 
past four years over $600,000, not including the new 
railroads. This is partially foreign capital. 

Muskogee has established the past year freight ser- 
—109— 



vice on the Arkansas River which will cost $20,000 
to complete. 

Over $200,000 was spent the past year increasing in- 
dustrial facilities and improving manufacturies of var- 
ious kinds. 

Considering the fact that June, 1900, there were 
500 souls in Muskogee, and the further fact that not a 
foot of land could be sold with a deed till August, 
1901, the above showing would be remarkable, but 
this is only a small item of the obstacles that had to 
be surmounted in the past five years. Contiguous and 
surrounding Muskogee were thousands of acres of 
land given away to large cattle ranges. Not over one- 
twentieth of the arable land within a radius of this 
town is tilled. There were not four hundred farmers 
within a radius of ten miles of Muskogee five years 
ago, and the majority of these were indifferent. A 
public highway was then misnomer. The large rivers 
were a detriment to the growth of the town and kept 
trade away. The Federal Government misunderstood 
the conditions of affairs and accentuated the unfavor- 
able situation. Nothing conspired to give prosperity 
but the untoward environments depressed enthusiasm 
and hampered progress. Notwithstanding all of the 
discouragements of the past, and the seemingly in- 
surmountable difficulties, the town built through them. 
Men were here who knew not defeat. They were re- 
pulsed, but kept on and in all the records of patience 
and perseverance under serious drawbacks, there is no 
brighter example than the men who have built Mus- 
kogee. They are still here and are still building. They 

— IIO- 



have gained the crest of the hill, and if they have built 
Muskogee under such conditions what will they do 
when unfettered and free they can advance with united 
ranks to the building of a great Muskogee. 

Theo. W. Gulick, 
Scretarv of Commercial Club. 



-Ill— 



Ninnekah 

Ninnekah, Indian Territory, is situated in the 
western part of the Chickasaw Nation on the main 
branch of the Rock Island Railroad, and therefore, 
has railroad connection with all the important centers 
north and south. By the different railroad connections 
it has easy connection with all points east and west. 
Ninnekah is also situated in the valley of the little 
Washita seven miles south of Chickasha. No better 
land can be found in the Indian Territory than this 
valley and the numerous creeks running into it. It is 
also surrounded with as fine prairie upland as the 
country affords. 

The products are corn, wheat, cotton, alfalfa, oats 
and all the forage, fruits and vegetables grows in this 
part of the country, all of which do well. 

The town has two general stores with another just 
ready to open, one good drug store, one jewelry store, 
one lumber yard, one barber shop, three churches, 
and two doctors. The things promised in the near 
future are a bank and another lumber yard. We also 
have two blacksmith shops and a good school, hotel, 
a music store, one wagon yard, one cotton gin and one 
corn mill. 

No doubt a grain elevator and general shipping busi- 
ness would pay. 

W. L. Anderson, 

Post Master. 

—112— 



Nowata 

Nowata, Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory is 
located on the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern 
Railroad, about twenty-two miles south of Coffeyville, 
Kansas, seventeen miles west of Bartlesville, Indian 
Territory, thirty miles north of Claremore, Indian 
Territory, and thirty-two miles west of Vinita, Indian 
Territory, in the beautiful, rich and healthful valley 
of the Verdigris and Caney Rivers in the center of 
one of the most extensive and paying oil fields in the 
Great Southwest, with a population of 2,000, among 
whom are to be found some of the most energetic and 
industrious, social and business men and women repre- 
senting almost every state in the Union, and the best 
blood of the Cherokee Tribe of Indians. It is the 
recording town of the third recording district of the 
Indian Territory with a United States Court, which 
convenes in regular session three times per year and 
with a resident United States commissioner, which 
facts undoubtedly entitle it to recognition as a county- 
seat in the organization of the new state of Oklahoma, 
which Congress will surely create out of the two terri- 
tories in the immediate future. 

The marvelous growth of Nowata, during the last 
—113- 



year, presents to the world a striking illustration of 
what the concerted action of the people can do for a 
new town with nothing to support it save the indomi- 
table determination of its inhabitants to make it an 
enduring model town. Within the last twelve months, 
brick and cement side-walks have been constructed 
along the principal streets, magnificent residences have 
been erected, a gas plant has been constructed bring- 
ing to the people that greatest winter luxury, natural 
gas, new businesses have become established, the med- 
icinal properties of its radium water have been dis- 
covered and put to the test, and are now being utilized 
by the Nowata Radium Sanitarium Company in giving 
to the afflicted the most wonderful fluid in its curative 
qualities in all the world, its real property has doubled 
in value, new business buildings are now in process 
of erection to supply the urgent demands of business 
men who see in Nowata a future city. Business men 
have experienced an unprecedented prosperity along 
all lines, three oil well supply houses have come into 
her midst to supply the demands of the recent oil 
development in her surrounding country, one new 
bank has been added to her other two, which were 
found insufficient to properly look after her growing 
financial condition, five new additions to the town have 
been platted and are now being rapidly sold to the in- 
vestors and homeseekers who have left their limited 
possibilities behind and have come to this new and 
grand country where opportunities for money making 
are limitless, new hotels and rooming houses have been 
builded and the homes of the citizens have been 

—111- 



thrown open, and yet there are not sufficient accom- 
modations for many people who make Nowata their 
objective point. 

The surrounding country for miles is unexcelled for 
its farming qualities and already, in localities, her rich 
soil is perforated by the oil drill and the embedded 
wealth is strangely yielding to the parasitic touch 
of the greased hand. So surprising has been the profit- 
able development of the oil fields in this part of the 
Cherokee Nation that land, regardless of its location, 
is not valued alone for its agricultural worth, but 
for its mineral wealth as well. 

Yet, with all this to the credit of her citizens and to 
commend her to hesitant homeseekers, Nowata, now 
in the gloaming of the expiring Tribal day invites the 
people of all lands to come and, with her own good 
citizens, continue the triumphant march, already 
begun, from a territorial town, with all the attendant 
disadvantages, through the perils and vicissitudes of 
an embryonic transition, into a well organized and 
beautiful city of the grandest and wealthiest state of 
the American Union — Oklahoma. 

W. J. Campbell^ 

Mayor. 



-115- 



Okmulgee 



Okmulgee is located in the center of the Creek 
Nation, and is the capital. The Frisco Railroad runs 
north and south, and Ozark & Cherokee Central east 
and west. 

To the north, east, and south lies broad rolling 
prairies, extending to the Arkansas River. This is a 
fertile sandy soil that is especially adapted to raising 
cotton, corn, wheat, and oats. And much of it is un- 
derlaid with a heavy deposit of coal of the finest 
quality. These coal fields have not yet been fairly 
started to producing and the supply is practically, in- 
exhaustible. To the west is the rich alluvial soil of 
the Deep Ford River bottoms and extensive forest 
that will furnish fuel for years. In many of these 
hills are known to exist lead, zinc, and other minerals 
which have been used for years by the natives. 

The climatic conditions here are peculiarly adapted 
also to the production of every variety of fruit and 
vegetable, owing to the mild winters and abundance 
of rain fall. A drought and crop failure is unknown 
to the oldest inhabitants. 

Okmulgee lays in the known oil and gas region ex- 
tending form Kansas to Texas. And both have been 
found to exist on all sides in abundance. The field 

-116- 



here is only beginning to be developed. And we ex- 
pect to have ample fuel in coal, oil, and gas for every 
manufacturing industry that wishes to come. 

The Creek Nation is an empire within itself and 
Okmulgee the central figure. A town grown in five 
years from four hundred to forty-five hundred. Every 
modern convenience of a city. And the population will 
be doubled within the next three or four years. 

Okmulgee prides herself in being the best built and 
the best governed town in the Indian Territory. With 
her many splendid brick business blocks, beautiful 
homes, splendid schools, good churches, and strong 
banks. 

Okmulgee has an active chamber of commerce, 
which offers its services to farmers, manufacturers, 
and every form of enterprise looking for a promising 
and growing field. We have the materials and want 
the producers. 

Wm. Cott, 
Secretary of Commercial Club. 



—117- 



Owasso 

Owasso is a beautiful town of eight hundred in- 
habitants, situated seventy miles south of the Kansas 
line, on the Santa Fe Railroad. It is a good shipping 
point. Owasso is located in one of the most fertile 
and beautiful farming countries in the Teri^itory. 
Climate is mild and healthy. The town contains a 
postoffice building, national bank, nine stores, two 
lumber yards, hardware store, drug store, newspaper, 
cotton gin, saw mill, two restaurants, a barber shop, 
two blacksmith shops, livery barn, three butcher shops 
and two pool halls. A large, well furnished school 
building also a large church. A good telephone ex- 
change. Heated and lighted by natural gas from 
wells within the town limits. Owasso is in the midst 
of a rapidly developing oil area. The soil is well 
suited to truck farming. Corn, wheat and oats are 
staple products. Corn is king, during the past season 
one hundred and ninety-seven cars were shipped from 
this point. A fine opportunity for good business men 
to locate here. 

W. A. Whitlock, 

Mayor. 



—118— 



Panama 

Panama is a new town in the eastern part of Choc- 
taw Nation at the junction of Kansas City Southern 
& Midland Valley Systems. It is only about two years 
old ; is' growing nicely and promises to make a good 
town. The farming country around the town is very 
fertile, produces good cotton and corn as well as small 
grain, and is especially adapted to fruit. The town is 
also surrounded by an excellent coal field, which in- 
sures its success. The town needs capital and the 
country surrounding needs a ^ood class of farmers. 
Write the post master. 



-119— 



Pauls Valley 



Pauls Valley is a town of 2,000 people and is located 
in the Chickasaw Nation on the Santa Fe and the 
Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroads. You will find 
as fine land there as can be found in famous black 
land belt of Texas. The United States court is held 
here. Look into the advantage of this town. 



Phillips 



Phillips is a mining town and is located in the 
Choctaw Nation on the Missouri, Kansas & Texas 
Railroad. Has a population of 1,500. The coal is very 
fine here. Most any kind of mercantile business would 
do well. 



—120- 



Poteau 

A place so favored by nature as an ideal location 
for homes for all classes of people. 

Poteau is located in the Choctaw Nation on the 
Poteau River at the junction of the Frisco and the 
Kansas City Southern Railroads, thirty miles south- 
w^est from Fort Smith, ten miles west from the Arkan- 
sas state line, fifteen miles from the Arkansas River 
at the nearest point. 

West of Poteau is the mountain and foothills of 
the Kavanaug^h Range. A drive of five miles takes you 
to the top of the mountain where there are several 
hundred acres of tillable land and where the climate 
of Colorado can be found in two hours from Poteau. 
The foothills of the mountain embraces some of the 
finest fruit lands in the world where all kinds of fruit 
can be raised, but it is more especially adapted to the 
peach. The soil is a sandy loam underlaid with red 
clay containing an abundance of iron, which gives a 
splendid color to the fruit and produces peaches equal 
in size and better in color and flavor than the Calir 
fornia peaches. 

The mountains and foothills also contain an 
abundance of pine, oak, white and red post oak, hick- 
ory, walnut and cherry. The Poteau River circles the 

-121- 



town so that on the east, north and south is the 
rich valley of the Poteau with its unlimited abundance 
of fine timber, oak of all kinds, hickory, gum, elm and 
sycamore abounding, which is easily accessible by 
wagon and by rail for twenty miles north and south 
of the town. Since allotment the bottom lands are 
being cleared and cultivated and the timber can be 
readily bought at reasonable prices. In former times 
owing to the thick growth of timber the bottom lands 
were not cultivated but they are now being cleared 
and cultivated and last year in one instance one and 
a quarter bales of cotton were raised to the acre the 
first year in cultivation. 

Across the river, east of the town, extending to the 
Sugar Loaf Mountains is a fine agricultural country 
part prairie and part timber, connected with the town 
by a steel bridge. Vast quantities of hay are raised 
there and shipped from Poteau. The soil around 
Poteau is particularly adapted to truck raising, being 
of a warm nature. Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, cai. 
telopes, water melons, and tomatoes have been suc- 
cessfully and profitably grown. 

Poteau has a population of about two thousand. 
We have seven churches, two Baptist, one Methodist, 
two Presbyterians, one Roman Catholic and one Chris- 
tian. Most all secret orders are represented. 

We have two national banks, two planing mills, 
handle factory, pressed brick plant, two small coal 
mines, within the corporate limits and a large mine 
at Witteville, three and one-half miles from us, run- 

—122— 



ning into the Kavanaugh Mountain, which is underlaid 
with three fine veins of coal. 

We had the first public school in the Choctaw 
Nation. We have now as good a school as any in 
the Indian Territory, the large cities not excepted, 
with an enrollment of nearly four hundred. A corps 
of five splendid teachers. The health of the town 
cannot be excelled. Our annual death rate does not 
exceed five to the thousand, which is a remarkable 
showing and is made on the authority of one of our 
best physicians. 

We are situated on the eastern end of the segregated 
coal district, and legislation now before congress in- 
dicates that this land will soon be sold, the surface 
separate, and sold to actual settlers. This will throw 
a large body of the finest land in the world on the 
market and an opportunity will be given to secure a 
home that is not often found. 

We need electric light plant, water works and sew- 
erage, wagon factory, furniture factory, bent wood fac- 
tory, steam laundry. 

Poteau is the recording town of the fourteenth 
recording district of Indian Territory and will be the 
county seat when statehood is established. It is also 
the seat of the United States court for the Poteau 
division of the central district of the Indian Territory. 
The United States court convenes three times a year, 
lasting from two to four weeks and the commissioner's 
court is in session at all times. For further informa- 
tion write the secretary of the Commercial Club. 



—123— 



Pryor Creek 



Pryor Creek, a town of 1,500 population is situated 
in the famous Cherokee Nation in the northeast part 
of the Indian Territory. It is recording town (county 
seat) of the fifth recording district, and is on the 
M. K. & T, Railroad twenty-five rniles south of Vinita 
and forty miles north of Muskogee. Two or three new 
railroads are coming soon, one of which is completed 
and now operating within twenty-five miles of this 
town; surveys and grades have been established 
through Pryor Creek. 

Agricultural resources are extensive and these have 
already made this a good thriving town. Two hun- 
dred thousand bushels of corn were marketed here in 
1905, and many thousand dollars worth of cattle, hogs 
and other live stock. The mineral resources are 
abundant in this vicinity. Oil, gas and minerals are 
now being developed within a few miles of town. All 
kinds of fruits produce well here. Pryor Creek has 
five churches and a good graded school system. 

The artesian well situated right in the center of town 
is pouring forth daily, hundreds of barrels of the 
famous radium water that has already proven to 
possess such wonderful curative properties in relieving 
the ills of man; and preparations are now being made 

—124- 



to put this water on the market and to use it here for 
baths and other medicinal purposes. 

There are many openings at this time for enter- 
prising men to help develop the many resources of 
this district, and establish commercial enterprises that 
will pay handsome profit*? to the investor. 

E. A. Green, 
Ex7City Recorder. 



-125 



Puree! I 

Purcell has a population of 3,000 people and is sit- 
uated on the A. T. & S. F. Railroad, has the shops 
and round house and division of that company. The 
Oklahoma Central that is now building from Lehigh, 
Indian Territory, northwest comes through Purcell 
and we have just secured the main shops and round 
house, by raising a large bonus, which is completed. 
We also get the hospital for the entire system, which 
is causing Purcell property to take a decided increase 
in value. 

We have the largest mill and elevator in the two 
territories; a large cotton seed oil mill; electric lights; 
water works, with six miles of mains ; ice plant ; two 
gins ; steam laundry ; six church buildings ; two good 
school buildings with nine months of free school ; 
three large hotels with smaller ones, and boarding 
houses ; we have a superior grade of brick business 
buildings; we are a United States court town, with a 
fine courthouse and will be the county seat when we 
get statehood. 

Secretary Commercial Club. 



—126— 



Quinton 



Quinton is a town of six hundred people on the 
Fort Smith & Western Railw^ and in a splendid sec- 
tion of farming country. The town is new, but has 
some modern buldings and a live set of business men 
who have made the town what it is in the short period 
of two years. 

We have a bank, cotton gin, hotel — need other 
capital and farmers to take advantage of the splendid 
opportunities which exist. 

Quinton is bound to grow — watch it. Write the 
postmaster for further information. 



-127- 



Ravia 



Ravia is a small town with about one thousand in- 
habitants and is located about one and one-half miles 
north of Washita River on the Frisco Railroad and 
two and one-half miles west .of Rock Creek. It is 
situated on reasonable high prairie and we get fine 
water at from fifteen to fifty feet. The land is mixed 
soil and is a fine as there is in the Indian Territory. 
The principal products raised are corn and cotton and 
also wheat and other small grain. It is also a fine 
fruit country; fruits of every kind are grown here 
successfully. All the farmers are prosperous, having 
plenty of money and all the business men are making 
money as the town is not over-done in proportion to 
the sourrounding countr}^ 

A canning factory would do well here, also a flour- 
ing mill and a large mercantile business. We have 
room for two good hotels, in fact, there is a better 
chance for a good business in most any kind of line 
here than any place I know of. 

J. F. Pate. 



■128- 



Redland 

Redland, Cherokee Nation, south of Kansas City, 
Mo., 306 miles, situated in a fertile section of country, 
land especially adapted to growing of truck, cotton, 
Irish potatoes, and corn. Shippers of cotton, Irish 
potatoes, radishes, strawberries, etc., will ship 25 or 
30 cars of Irish potatoes this season, and considerable 
quantities of onions and melons. (This land will pro- 
duce two crops potatoes per year.) 

Wanted at Redland, truck farmers, who understand 
growing and handling truck, a saw mill, barber shop 
and restaurant. 

For information address, 

A. E. Laisure, 

Redland, I. T. 



—129- 



Rock Island 



Rock Island is a new town springing up in the 
eastern part of Choctaw Nation, at the junction, of the 
Frisco division of the Rock Island & Midland Valley 
systems. Rock Island is only one year old and has 
postoffice, hotel, two restaurants, church now in course 
of construction, general merchandise store, and union 
depot. The land around Rock Island is both prairie 
and bottom and produces corn, cotton, small grain, 
and the upland is especially adapted to fruit and there 
are several good orchards already started near 
the town. 

Rock Island is also located on one of the best coal 
fields in the Territory and this together with the 
farming interest and railroad conveniences will make 
it a good town in the near future. 

H. C. JUDKINS, 



-130- 



Roff 



Roff Is located in the Chickasaw Nation, seventy- 
two miles north of Denison, Texas, on the Frisco Rail- 
road, in one of the most resourceful portions of the 
Indian Territory 

The town is situated at the head of Blue River, 
and has an elevation of 1,500 feet, being one of the 
highest towns in the Territory. This elevation makes 
it one of the most desirable residence localities, and 
is especially well adapted for schools, colleges, etc. 
The agricultural country surrounding the town is 
exceedingly fine, being adapted to corn, cotton, small 
grain, and especially productive as to the small fruits 
and vegetables. 

The town has a fine system of telephone, electric 
lights, an oil mill representing an investment of nearly 
$100,000 and three cotton gins. 

Bonds have been issued for a $25,000 system of 
water works, and a canning factory is now being in- 
stalled. 

Roff is ahead of the country; it offers excellent 
opportunities for several general stores. 

An up-to-date shoe house, fluor mill, steam laundry, 
brick plant, ice plant would do well and these enter- 

—131- 



prises would receive the hearty support of the entire 
population. 

Come to Roff and grow up with the country. The 
future holds excellent opportunities for enterprises of 
all kinds. 

C. S. Hudson^ 
Secretary of Commercial Club. 



—132— 



Ryan 



Ryan is a prosperous little town of twelve hundred 
people, located on the main line of the Rock Island 
Railroad, from Chicago to Fort Worth, about one 
hundred miles north of Fort Worth, Texas, about two 
and one-half miles from the Oklahoma line where 
lands are selling for twenty to fifty dollars per acre. 

Ryan is located in the midst of one of the best 
farming sections in the Southwest, where virgin soil 
predominates, and has never been worn out by con- 
tinued cultivation. Until recent years the stillness 
was only broken by the voice of the lonely cowboy and 
the hungry wail of the coyote. Now, however, the 
hissing steam of the through and local trains together 
with the hum of the cotton gins and flouring mills 
have superceded the above named noises. This is in- 
deed a wonderful country, whose resources are only 
now being opened to a large and ever increasing im- 
migration. 

- The recent returns of the town assessor show the 
taxable wealth of Ryan to be a little less than $200,000 
this does not include the real estate of Ryan, as only 
personal property has heretofore been taxed and next 
year the first assessment against the real estate will 
be made. 

—133— 



The principal crops raised are cotton, corn, oats, 
wheat and melons, all of which are very successfully- 
raised here, fruit of all kinds also grow in abundance. 

Over five thousand five hundred bales of cotton were 
received at Ryan during the past year, five hundred 
and thirty-six cars of cattle were shipped from Ryan 
during the past year. 

Ryan is located in one of the most healthful climates 
in the Middle West, about midway between the bleak 
plains of the Kansas and the Semi-tropical regions of 
Central Texas, our winters are mild with little snow 
and ice, and outdoor work can be carried on the 
entire year. 

Taken from official returns at Fort Sill, sixty-five 
miles northwest, made by the war department, we find 
that for the past five years the average yearly rain fall 
is thirty-two inches, thus dispelling doubts which any 
one might have as to sufficient moisture for agri- 
cultural purposes. 

The minimum temperature during the summer 
months is about eighty degrees, winter months about 
forty-five degrees. 

Ryan has a flour mill, three cotton gins, two na- 
tional banks, local and long distance telephone system, 
a resident United States commissioner's court. United 
States district court, an opera house, a court house 
and jail, a splendid college, four nice churches, two 
newspapers, two hotels, two lumber yards, livery barn, 
meat market, three drug stores four large stocks of 
general merchandise, three large stocks of hardware 

—134— 



and implements, two furniture stores and other en- 
terprises to numerous to mention. 

The legal and medical professions are well repre- 
sented but there is room for live energetic men of any 
profession, trade or calling. 

C. A. McBrain, 
Secretary of Commercial Club. 



-135— 



Sallisaw 

Sallisaw, a thriving town of 2,000 progressive people 
is located twenty miles west of Fort Smith, Arkansas, 
in the Cherokee Nation, at the crossing of the Kansas 
City Southern and Missouri Pacific Railroads. Our 
county begins just west of Fort Smith, Arkansas, and 
extends west a distance of fifty-four miles. The 
Arkansas River is the southern line of the county, 
giving us about eighty-five miles of fine river bottom 
lands in our county. The larger portion of the river 
bottom lands are a deep sandy loam with occasionally 
some pure black land. Our uplands are very produc- 
tive, being of a dark sandy loam, with good clay sub- 
soil. Our uplands are timber and prairie. We have 
at present only twenty-five per cent of the lands that 
can be cultivated in cultivation and one can secure 
extraordinary good leases in this country on the most 
reasonable terms. From now on some lands will be 
for sale, as restrictions are removed from time to time. 

Sallisaw is a good market town and does about 
$1,000,000 worth of business annually. We have two 
banks, five cotton gins, one $80,000 cotton seed oil mill, 
a wagon factory, a good free school system, five church 
buildings, a number of up-to-date mercantile establish- 
ments, drug stores and a job printing office, 

—136— 



We need a trust company, a canning factory, hard- 
wood manufacturing plant, a poultry farm, a breeder 
of thorough bred hogs, and one of cattle, a feeder of 
beef cattle, etc. We have room for a number of good 
people, and will take pleasure in answering all 
inquiries. 

J. C. Berry. 



-137- 



Sapulpa 



Sapulpa is the northern gateway to the fertile plains 
of the Creek N'ation ; passenger and freight division 
and junction of the two great trunk lines from the 
south and southwest of the great Frisco Railway Sys- 
tem ; surrounded by wooded hills, gently undulating 
prairies; near the head waters of clear limpid streams 
that furnish the city as pure water as Adam was 
allowed to drink ; in the very heart of the cotton, corn, 
wheat and fruit lands; seventy-five to one hundred 
miles from any other large city; with a Federal court 
house, court and court officers insuring a county seat; 
with the only cotton compress within a radius of 
twenty-five or thirty miles; with cotton gins, brick 
plant, ice plant, machine shops, wagon and implement 
factory, planing mill and other industries, with an ideal 
site for city, and an ideal people to miake it; with a 
system of water works and an electric light plant, 
the pride of any country, and a commodious and ar- 
tistically designed school building now in construction; 
with 3,500 people now and prospect of double and 
treble that number in the next few years; with rail- 
roads and various commercial interests looking 
our way. 

The contiguous territory needs a word in order that 
—138— 



you may get a just conception of the basis for our 
claims. The country immediately adjacent to the town 
is rolling and covered with trees of oak, hickory, ash, 
walnut and other varieties. While they grow large 
they do not grow dense and will be no great obstacle 
in ''clearing" the ground for agriculture and orchards. 
Some of the ground is rocky, 'tis true, but of a dis- 
intregrated nature, rather than in ledges. This ground 
produces fine pasturage, and when cultivated will 
yield a fair acreage of cotton, and is hardly excelled by 
the Ozarks as fruit growing land. Fruits both large 
and small attain their highest perfection. Peaches 
grown from "seedling" trees are often so large as to 
fill a pint cup. The bottom lands along the numerous 
streams and rolling prairies are unexcelled in their 
productiveness. 

Stock of all kind does well. Cattle and horses grow 
fat and sleek, and sheep and hogs grow fat without 
getting sleek. 

Raising of poultry is a profitable industry, while the 
market gardener is in his most felicitous element 
with us ; the town affording a market which has to this 
time never been amply supplied. 

As to our climate, too much cannot be said in its 
praise. Altitude seven hundred and twenty-five feet 
above sea level. The cotton stalk grows side by side 
with the corn stalk, its sturdier competitor of the north 
for the crown of commercial supremacy, each out- 
doing the other (or at least, what the other could do 
in any other climate) ; where the various products of 
orchard, vineyard, plantation, garden, meadow and 

—139- 



field are willing to stand on their rights as vouchsafed 
by the articles of incorporation of the great United 
States of being "free and equal." 

A word about the people already here. They are 
from everywhere. Genial, whole-souled, pleasant, hos- 
pitable. You couldn't help but like them. When you 
hear the hummed tune, the whistled song accompanied 
by the ping of the trowell, the blow of the hammer 
and the clang of the anvil, all indicating industry com- 
bined with contentment, it borns such a sense of satis- 
faction, that one feels he is in a land of plenty and it 
is useless to go further. 

R. C. KiNNAIRD. 



—140— 



Shady Point 

Shady Point, Choctaw Nation, population 300, south 
of Kansas City, Mo., 320 miles. The town is pleas- 
antly situated and is situated in a fine farming country. 
Coal mining and general farming, potato and melon 
growing are the principal occupations of the town 
and adjacent country. There is much good stone, 
timber and coal in the vicinity and considerable axe 
handle timber is shipped to Poteau and Fort Smith. 
During 1904 there were established at Shady Point 
a coal mine, cotton gin, hotel, grist mill, telephone 
service and a school. The local shipments have in- 
creased fifty per cent. 

A physician would find a good opening at this place. 

Wanted at Shady Point — A bank, axe handle 
factory, a merchant with a general stock, a druggist 
and a brick yard. 

Write for information to 

Postmaster. 



— Ul- 



Silo 

Silo is located eight miles west of Durant in the 
Chickasaw Nation, and it is located in the edge of the 
cross timbers running east and west from Wishita to 
Blue Rivers, it is a nice location for a town. The soil 
is a sandy loam and very productive, well adapted to 
all kinds of fruit and vegetables. On the south is a 
fine sandy land prairie, two miles north is a fine black 
land prairie which makes the surrounding country 
well adapted to the growing of all kind of crops. The 
town has a population of about four hundred; has 
three general merchandise stores ; one drug store ; 
one barber shop ; one grocery store ; one repair shop ; 
two balcksmith shops; one up-to-date cotton gin; 
a good school; one railroad survey that is chartered, 
running from Denison, Texas, north through the In- 
dian Territory with good prospects of an interurban 
line being built through here from Sulphur to Deni- 
son, Texas. 

All we need to make this one of the best little 
towns in the Indian Territory are men with more 
capital and enterprise to settle up and develop this 
great country. 

J. D. Heath. 



-142— 



South McAlester 

South McAlester is located in the central part of 
the Choctaw Nation, at the crossing of Chicago, Rock 
Island & Pacific, formerly the Oklahoma & Gulf, and 
Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroads, and it has a 
population of about seven thousand. 

The farming land around South McAlester is in- 
ferior to that of which surrounds most towns in the 
Indian Territory — being surrounded almost com 
pletely by coal land and soil of which is not very pro- 
ductive. Vegetables, however, grow well and owing 
to the size of the town truck farming pays well. The 
town derives most of its revenue from the different 
•coal mines, which are in and around South McAlester, 
and it is situated in one of the best coal fields in the 
Indian Territory. It is to this that South McAlester 
attributes its success in the past and looks forward to 
in the future ; the coal is of the best quality and the 
quantity is practically inexhausible. 

South McAlester has three national banks, one iron 
foundry, cotton compress, compressed brick plant, 
matress factory, macaroni factory, and a large number 
of up-to-date stores all of which are doing good busi- 
ness. The town also boasts of the best hotel in the 
Southwest, which has recently been completedf costing 
in the neighborhood of $200,000. The town has a 
bright future and promises at a day not far distance 
to become a city. 
- '^^ • - —143- 



Spiro 



Spiro, Choctaw Nation, south of Kansas City, Mo., 
312 miles, west of Fort Smith, Ark., 16 miles. Popula- 
tion 1,000, engaged in the handling of cotton, forage 
and hay. The annual cotton shipments amount to 
from 10,000 to 12,000 bales; annual potato shipments 
from 40 to 60 carloads. The bottom lands in the 
vicinity are excellently adapted to cotton, corn and po- 
tato crops. For the season of 1905 the acreage in pota- 
toes is 500 acres, yielding 32,500 bushels. The hill 
lands are good for fruits, potatoes, truck and general 
farm crops. The land here, yields two crops of pota- 
toes each year. There are also large areas of prairie 
lands suited for general farming and stock raising. 
There is much oak, hickory and cottonwood in the 
vicinity that could be manufactured to advantage and 
large coal deposits as yet undeveloped are convenient. 
Indian land titles are being perfected and lands can 
be sold within a year. At present leases for five years 
can be obtained on any of the lands and the inter- 
married whites can give good title to their sur- 
plus lands. 

The town has two cotton gins, a local telephone sys- 
tem, good long distance connections, two churches, 
and a good school building. The town is growing 

-Ui— 



steadily, real estate values are still low enough to be 
attractive as an investment. Spiro is the junction 
point of the main line of the Kansas City Southern 
Railway and its Fort Smith branch, and also the cross- 
ing of the Fort Smith & Western Railway. 

The following lines of business are wanted at Spiro : 
Another large general merchandise store, a first-class 
modern hotel, livery stable, brickyard, tinshop, whole- 
sale flour and feed store, a live newspaper man, a saw 
mill, bakery, a competnent lawyer, a racket store and 
a buyer of poultry, eggs, butter and hides. 

Address for information, 

Secretary Commercial Club. 



—145— 



springer 



Springer lies twelve miles north of Ardmore near 
the foot of the famous Arbuckle Mountains on that 
beautiful stream Caddo. This is one of the best farm- 
ing countries in the Chickasaw Nation. It is well 
watered, plenty of wood, pasturage and everything to 
make life worth the while. Springer has a population 
of about four hundred people and is one of the health- 
iest places to be found anywhere. We have two 
first-class general merchandise stores, a first-class drug 
store, nice restaurant, confectionery, blacksmith shops, 
gins, and other business incidental to a good town. 
We have a good school building in which school is in 
session nine months out of the year. 

The Woodmen of the World and Methodist church 
have lumber on the ground to erect new buildings for 
their work. 

We are six miles west of Berwyn on the G. F. & S. 
F. Railroad. We are on the motor road that is con- 
templated being built from Ardmore to the noted 
health resort. Turner Falls. When this road is com- 
pleted it will give us cheap and efficient transporta- 
tion to outside points. One of the most picturesque 
sceneries in the Indian Territory are the Arbuckle 
Mountains, they are also full of different kinds of min- 

—146— 



erals which are being developed. Great crops of cot- 
ton, corn and oats are raised here every year. We 
never have a failure. If you are looking for good 
country to make your home don't pass Springer up, 
for she is the garden spot of the Chick?.saw Nation. 

J. H. Brasher, 

Postmaster. 



-147- 



Sterrett 



The incorporated town of Sterrett, Choctaw Nation, 
on the M. K. & T. Railroad ten miles north of Red 
River, fifteen miles east of Washita, twelve miles 
south of Blue, is situated on a high rolling prairie 
in the heart of the best producing land of the Nation. 
Known to be one of the best marketing towns for 
hay and grain on the M. K. & T. south of Kansas. 
The fertility of the surrounding country is second 
to none in production, being well fitted for diversifi- 
cation and yielding abundant harvest of all kinds of 
produce. The town has a population of about 1,000 
people who are moral, religious and law-abiding citi- 
zens. Our churches are well filled each Sunday. Ster- 
rett with her free school system and large two-story 
well furnished building in which a term of ten months 
Is taught each year offers educational advantages 
such as parents desiring to educate their children will 
find in few towns. As with its high location, good 
drainage and abundance of fine water; Sterrett is 
being populated by people seeking health as well as 
wealth. In the business section of the town we have 
energetic merchants, three practicing physicians, three 
attorneys, two real estate offices, first national bank, 
two gins, two drug store, furniture store, several firms 

-148- 



of general merchandise, and many smaller enterprises, 
which go to make Sterrett an energetic, wide-awake 
thriving town. 

Sterrett needs and would well patronize the fol- 
lowing: a wholesale grocery store, first-class dry- 
goods and clothing house, hardware implement, and 
vehicle establishment, harness and saddle shop, and 
another first-class hotel. To all we could promise an 
extensive business as the fertile country around us 
is and is being more thickly settled each year. 

G. W. Goodwin, 

Mayor. 



-149- 



Stigler 



Stigler, the town of which so much has been said, 
for the past year and a half, both by newspapers and 
traveling men, owing to its sturdy growth and rapidly 
increasing financial strength ; is located on the Mid- 
land Valley Railroad, midway between Fort Smith, 
Arkansas, and Muskogee, Indian Territory, fifty miles 
from each place, the nearest competition. 

The townsite is a high well drained prairie com- 
manding the rich valleys of both the Arkansas and 
Canadian Rivers, the very heart and core of the finest 
agricultural lands with as healthful a climate to be 
found in Amercia, the products from this land alone 
will in a few years make Stigler a city of the first- 
class, without taking into consideratioli the unlimited 
coal fields that almost joint the town. Already there 
are two national banks, three gins, three churches, 
schools, telephone exchange, blocks of brick store and 
office buildings, and blocks of concrete sidewalks. 
There is needed now a first-class electric lighting 
plant, and an oil mill, neither of which are far off, 
for the cotton returns show that sufficient seed is to 
be had to make it pay from the start, and everybody 
wants the lighting. 

—150— 



Stigler is the best new town in the country, their 
Invitation to every honest, industrious person is '*Comc 
grow up with Stigler and get rich." y 

I. C. Cole, 

Mayor. 



—151— 



Stilwell 

Stilwell, Cherokee Nation, this town is 258 miles 
south of Kansas City, Mo., and lies on the slope of 
the Boston Mountains, being 400 feet higher than any- 
other town within forty miles. The population is 
between 1,200 and 1,400. The surrounding country is 
rich agricultural land, adapted to the standard field 
crops, as well as to the raising of fine fruits and com- 
mercial truck, such as strawberries, onions and Irish 
potatoes. During 1904 there were shipped from Stil- 
well 1,200 cases of eggs and 72,000 pounds of poultry. 
Corn produces 40 to 75 bushels, wheat 20 to 25 and 
cotton a bale to the acre. For live stock the country 
is excellent as there is forage in abundance. The 
available resources that can hp developed and will sus- 
tain a large town are lumber, marble, building stone, 
zinc, lead, and the agricultural resources of the sur- 
rounding country. The increase in population during 
1904 has been 100 in town and 100 families within five 
miles of it. During the year there were installed a 
cotton gin, bank, telephone service, school, four busi- 
ness buildings costing $40,000 and twenty-five resi- 
dences, costing $15,000. The shipment of products 
from Stilwell have increased five hundred per cent. 
All the new business buildings are being built of stone 
found in the vicinity. 

Wanted at Stilwell, a good hotel, coal dealer, electric 
light plant, tailor, jeweler, and brick yard. 

Write for information to Mayor. 
—152— 



5ulpher 



Snlpher is a town of about 3,000 people located in 
the Chickasaw Nation on a branch of the Frisco Sys- 
tem. It is gaining quite a reputation as a resort town 
and possess as fine springs as can be found anywhere. 
The government has appropriated large sums of 
money for its development and it already rivals the 
best resorts in the Southwest. 

For health and pleasure one could not find a better 
location than this town. 



Tahlequah 



Tahlequah is a town of about 2,000 people located 
in the Cherokee Nation and was the capital of said 
nation under the tribal government. 

It is a good stock country and fairly good farming 
country, grows corn, small grain and some cotton. 
The town like other towns in the new country needs 
capital. 

—15a- 



Talala 

Talala is located in the northwestern part of the 
Cherokee Nation on the St. Louis and Iron Moun- 
tain Railroad. Is incorporated under the laws of 
Arkansas and has a population of four hundred and 
fifty people — all white. Talala is well supplied with 
organizations promoting the moral, spiritual and in- 
tellectual growth of its citizens. We take great pride 
in our school system. We have eight months of free 
school each year, with an enrollment of one hundred 
and seventy-five pupils, taught by three able teachers. 
Our churches are well attended and are presided over 
by able and sincere ministers of the gospel. We have 
a union Sunday School that would be a credit to any 
town of ten times the size of Talala. 

Talala has the following industries, namely, three 
general stores, one drug store, one millinery store ; 
one butcher shop, two hotels, two blacksmith shops, 
one grain elevator, one feed mill, one barber shop, 
two large hay barns, one livery barn, one lumber yard, 
one real estate office, two notary publics, one tele- 
phone system, one bank, two doctors, one coal com- 
pany, three oil and gas companys, one poultry and 
hide dealer, one A. F. and A. M. lodge, one W. O. W. 

—154— 



lodge, one M. W. A. lodge, one W. C. T. U. society, 
one Christian Endeavor and last but not least one 
newspaper. 

The country surrounding Talala is mostly prairie 
with the Verdigris River on the east and the Caney 
River on the west — each river has a vast amount of 
rich bottom land. At the present not one acre in every 
hundred is in cultivation. Ninety-five per cent of the 
land here is good agricultural land and will grow most 
anything you wish to raise ; wheat, oats, corn, cane, 
caffir corn are the principal field products. Potatoes, 
apples, peaches, plums and fruits of all varieties can 
be grown here in abundance. 

The winters are mild and the seasons are regular. 

Land rents for one-third crop or for cash from 
twenty-five cents to two dollars per acre, according 
to location and improvements. You can buy land 
from fifteen to fifty dollars per acre. Today this is 
one of the greatest oil and gas fields that the world 
has ever known ; there is at least fifteen hundred good 
producing oil and gas wells within a radius of twenty- 
five miles of Talala which represents a capital of mil- 
lions of dollars. 

We need men with money and push to help develop 
Talala and surrounding country. No place under the 
sun holds out more golden opportunities to the hustler 
or farmer with small means or the capitalist with his 
millions than does Talala and surrounding coun- 
try today. 

R. L. Farrer, 

Mayor. 
—155— 



Talihina 

Talihina is a town of six hundred people located 
seventy miles southwest of the Fort Smith on the main 
line of the Frisco Railroad. It is in the eastern part 
of the fertile Kiamichi Valley and thus has tributary 
to it some five hundred square miles of the richest 
land in the Choctaw Nation. 

Talihina has seven general-stores, two drug stores, 
a racket store, meat market, weekly newspaper, the 
Talihina Tribune, barber shop, two cotton gins, two 
lumber mills, one planing mill, two blacksmith shops, 
one hotel, three restaurants, one livery stable and 
first national bank. 

There is a good opening in Talihina for handle fac- 
tories or workers in hard woods, lumber yards, (the 
demand for lumber for houses being very great) and 
for a good hardware store, carrying builders materials, 
also for a general repair shop and jeweler. In fact, 
there is a good opening for nearly everyone, but more 
than all for farmers and stock raisers. The Kiamichi 
Valley is exceedingly fertile and its rainfall can be re- 
lied upon. In twenty years there has never been a 
crop failure caused by drought or, in fact, by any- 
thing. The flood of 1904 causing the worst partial 
failure the country has so far experienced. The bot- 

—156— 



torn lands along the Kiamichi River affords the best 
quality of black bottom land soil, while the prairies of 
the valley are easier of cultivation and not far behind 
in fertility. There has been a great deal of building 
in Talihina the past year. 

John T. Bailey, 

Recorder 



-157- 



Tamaha 

Tamaha is located on a healthy rocky emience over- 
looking the Arkansas River, midway between Fort 
Smith, Arkansas, and Muskogee, Indian Territory. 

Tamaha has a moral and enterprising population of 
five hundred, two churches; free school in a com- 
fortable two-story stone structure, cotton gin, saw 
mill, giving employment to fifty people, coal mme, 
newspaper, drug store, bank, nine general merchan- 
dise stores and water transportation. 

Tamaha has 10,000 acres of improved, rich Arkansas 
and Canadian bottom farms tributary to it, and as 
much to be improved, 12,000 acres of segregated coal 
land. Tamaha is resourceful in cotton, corn, hay, 
cattle, coal and hard wood timber and fruits. 

Wanted — railroad, farmers, and laborers. 

W. W. Fisher, 

Mayor. 



—158- 



Terral 



Terral, Indian Territory, is a town of about seven 
hundred and fifty people located in the southwest 
corner of the Chickasaw Nation on the Rock Island 
Railroad, of which system it is a freight division 
point. South to Fort Worth, ninety-three miles, north 
to Chickasha eighty-seven miles. 

There are about 40,000 acres of tillable lands tribu- 
tary to Terral ; one-half of which is in the Red River 
valley, the remainder being higher prairies. The town 
at present has five general stores — a bank, the first 
national, a newspaper, the Tribune, two churches; 
a lumber yard , two hardware and furniture establish- 
ments, a corn shelling and shipping company, two 
blacksmith and woodwork shops, two barber shops 
one fancy grocery and confectionary , three hotels , 
two drug stores, four physicians, one butcher shop, 
four lodges — Masonic, Odd Fellows, A. O. U. W. and 
W. O. W. , two restaurants , two cotton gins and one 
corn mill. The exports for the past season will bring 
Terral and vicinity about $250,000 in cash. 

Lands are usually farmed on shares, the landlord 
getting one-third of the corn and one fourth of the 
cotton , very little cash rent being paid. The valley 
lands are extremely fertile and the high prairies are 
productive, with very poor cultivation, large crops 

—159— 



of corn and cotton are produced. In one instance the 
present season, the writer heard a reliable farmer of 
Terral claim that he had realized a bale of cotton 
for every days plowing he had given his crops. 

Our present needs are an up-to-date cotton gin, 
a vinegar and pickle factory, lighting system; artifi- 
cial stone plant. 

In the near future Terral proposes to build a $5,000 
school house and establish a free school system not to 
be excelled in the Indian Territory. Many new bricks 
are in contemplation and we think another year will 
find Terral on the road to prosperous future. We 
are a quiet law-abiding commounity. 

James M. Stewart, 

Mayor. 



—160— 



Tishomingfo 



Tishomingo is located on the C. R. & P. Railroad 
and has a population of 2,500 and is the capital of 
the Chickasaw Nation. The capitol building in which 
the Chickasaw legislature meets is a large two-story 
solid granite building, built by the Chickasaw In- 
dians at a cost of about $18,000. It is the capital of the 
Twenty-second recording district of the Indian Ter- 
ritory and is the place where all the records of said dis- 
trict are kept. The United States court for the South- 
ern district of the Indian Territory convenes at Tisho- 
mingo three times each year. 

It has two new modern brick school buildings, built 
at a cost of $10,000 each. The city maintains a good 
system of free schools. It has the most complete, per- 
fect and unique system of water works in the Indian 
Territory. The system is operated almost without 
cost and brings to the city a big revenue each month. 
The plant is owned by the city. The water supply 
comes from the Pennington River, a stream is pumped 
by a turbine wheel into the stand pipe. 

It has a large coton oil mill, two gins; ice plant, 
electric light plant, two banks, broom factory, a 

—161— 



cabinet factory, two newspapers, seven church or- 
ganizations, four handsome church houses. 

It has a fire department with well equiped fire fight- 
ing outfit, hose carts, ladders and hose. It has cheap 
insurance. It is within a mile and oneJialf of the R. 
M. Harris granite quarry. This granite is said to be 
as good as the best. R. M. Harris recently received 
the bronze medal awarded by the Louisiana Purchase 
Exposition commissioner's for granite display at the 
St. Louis world's fair. The quarry as yet has not 
sufficient machinery to supply the demand for granite. 
It is estimated that 1,000 skilled quarrymen could be 
employed in this quarry and that they could not supply 
the demands for this granite. 

Tishomingo is surrounded by farming lands equal 
to any farming lands in the Southwest. The Washita 
River runs two miles south of the city. 75,000 acres 
of Washita bottom lands are tributary. The Blue 
River runs within eight miles of the city on the north. 
40,000 acres of Blue River bottom are tributary to 
the city. The lands immediately around the city are 
especially adapted to the culture of fruits, berries 
and melons. The Tishomingo country is especially 
adapted to horticulture. 

The climate is delightful and healthful. The rain 
fall is even greater than it is in most other parts of 
the Indian Territory. 

It has fine water and springs famous for their 
medicinal properties. The city is located on hills, the 
drainage is perfect. The beautiful scenery surround- 
ing the city will make the place a favorite watering 

. —162— 



place and a resort for winter as well as for summer. 
It is the shipping point for a large amount of cotton. 

Tishomingo needs and will encourage and support 
a large credit dry goods store, a compress, flour mill, 
box factory, handle factory, canning factory, glass 
factory, one thousand farmers to develop the country 
immediately around the city a cotton mill. 

A movement is now on foot to establish a high grade 
school or college. It will unquestionably be a county 
seat in the new state. 

It is estimated that eight hundred horse power can 
be accumulated from the Pennington River and 2,000 
horse power form the Blue River at Tishomingo for 
operating factories. 

The citizens are aggressive, progressive and public 
spirited. 

We invite every reader of this article to come to 
Tishomingo and see for himself. In all sincerity we 
claim that it has more natural advantages and re- 
sources than any city in the Indian Territory. 

Charles S. Stephens. 



-163- 



Tulsa 

Tulsa, one of the most promising and picturesque 
cities in the Indian Territory, is situated on • high, 
rolling land overlooking the Arkansas River, and 
bids fair to become the ''metropolis" of the Southwest, 
having grown from a little Indian trading post of 
about one thousand inhabitants, to a full fledged city 
of about eight thousand inhabitants in the last three 
or four years and it still continues to grow at a most 
remarkable rate. 

Tulsa is surrounded by the finest farming land that 
can be found in the Territory; vegetation grows lux- 
uriously, and the cliraate is such that both southern 
and northern products can be cultivated to perfection. 

In natural resources Tulsa has no rival in the Terri- 
tory, being situated right in the center of the coal, oil 
and gas fields. Large quantities of coal is mined near 
the city, and a number of mines are in active opera- 
tion all the time. The city uses natural gas for all 
heating and lighting purposes, with the exception of 
the streets, which are lighted with electricity. The 
city will furnish gas to all manufacturing enterprises 
at three cents per thousand cubic feet, and for domestic 
purposes at twenty cents per thousand cubic feet. The 

—164- 



gas fields around Tulsa have been tested and proven 
to be almost inexhaustible in their supply. 

Niot only in natural resources does Tulsa excel, but 
also in the matter of railroad facilities. There is 
scarcely an hour in the day but that the traveling pub- 
lic can be accommodated with good railroad service in 
all directions, there being five railroads coming into 
Tulsa, namely: Frisco, A. T. & S. F., M. K. & T., the 
Midland Valley and the A. V. & W., which places 
Tulsa at the head of the list as a railroad center in 
the Territory, and, owing to these railroad facilities, 
and the inexhaustible supply of cheap fuel, Tulsa is 
offering the finest inducements that could be given to 
any and all classes of manufacturing enterprises. 

Tulsa has now sixteen hundred front feet of business 
blocks now in mode of construction, and the buildings 
that are being constructed are of the latest and most 
modern architecture, in fact, it may be said to have 
two "sky-scrapers" which would do credit to any 
eastern city, and the demand is so great that these 
buildings are all rented before completed. There are 
also a great many beautiful residences in the course 
of construction, and it is a very difficult matter, even 
with the large number under construction, to get a 
residence without contracting for it before it is com- 
pleted, so rapid is the influx into the city. 

Tulsa has just accepted a water works plant at a 
cost of $125,000, and several hundred men are being 
employed in the installation of a sewer system. Within 
the past year Tulsa has built two public school build- 
ings, one costing $40,000, and the other $20,000. 

—165— 



Plans are being drawn for the construction of two 
more beautiful churches, and one is rapidly nearing 
completion, which will cost in the neighborhood of 
$50,000, which will without doubt make Tulsa a city 
of beautiful churches. An opera house costing $65,000 
has just been completed, which will add another monu- 
ment to Tulsa. 

Much of the progress of Tulsa is due to those 
pioneers who came out into the countr}^ in the early 
years and blazed the way of others to follow. The first 
man to establish a permanent business house in the 
city of Tulsa, was J. M. Hall, who has ever since 
been a leading figure as a merchant and banker, and 
who is now one of Tulsa's most enthusiastic capitalists. 

To the Tulsa Commercial Club, which is known far 
and near for the activity of its membership, much is 
due. It has worked hard and long for the progress of 
Tulsa, and is now beginning to see the fruits of their 
labor. Anyone desiring information regarding Tulsa 
will receive prompt attention by addressing the 
secretar}^ of the Commercial Club, Tulsa, Indian 
Territory. 

C. S. Walker^ 
Secretary of Commercial Club. 



—166— 



Valliant 

Valliant is on the A. & C. Railroad twenty-eight 
miles east of Hugo, forty-five miles west of the Arkan- 
sas line, is a beautiful town of eight hundred in- 
habitants, is a pleasant place to live in the summer 
also good in the winter. The soil is good; we are 
five miles south of Red River and six miles north to 
Little River. 

The town has two hotels, four restaurants, nine 
grocery and dry goods stores, two livery and feed 
stables, three blacksmith shops, one harness and shoe 
shop, one barber shop. 

Jack Allen, 

Mayor. 



—167- 



Vera 



Vera, Indian Territory, is situated midway between 
Bartlesville and Tulsa on the A. T. & S. F. Railroad 
and is in the most fertile farming country in the Chero- 
kee Nation. Vera's soil is adapted to wheat, oats, corn, 
fruit and vegetables and cotton. The natural product 
is wood, coal, oil, gas, prairie hay, etc. Our town is 
new and invites all kinds of legitimate business men. 
Our lands are rich and much of it yet not in cultiva- 
tion. We need a good hotel, newspaper, number of 
enterprises and ten thousand citizens to aid the de- 
velopment of this great Eden of the United States. 
Will be pleased to answer all inquiries. 

C. W. Richardson, 
President of Commercial Club. 



-168- 



Vian 



Vian, is the name of a thriving town on the Mis- 
souri Pacific Railroad, thirty-eight miles northwest of 
Fort Smith and eight miles north of the Arkansas 
River. Its surrounding hills and valleys present an 
appearance extremely picturesque and beautiful, while 
its rich bottoms and uplands offer the greatest induce- 
ments to the homeseeker. 

Surrounding the town lies 115,000 acres of as rich 
land as man can behold, the lands being adapted to 
all the different wants of the farmer or stock raisers, 
while beneath its surface lies products of wealth in 
coal and other minerals awaiting the pick and shovel. 
Traces of oil have been found and only time will tell 
whether or not the town is to be a second Tulsa or 
Bartlesville. 

The writer of this article first saw Vian during the 
month of March, 1897, at which time the population 
was about two hundred souls ; while at the present 
time the population will number about eight hundred. 
There has been no boom but the richness of the sur- 
rounding country has insured to the town a steady 
growth. 

—169— 



The town was incorporated in 1899 and is one of the 
ocst governed towns in the bounds of the Indian 
Territory. 

The chief products of the farm at the present stage 
of development are cotton, corn, potatoes, hay, oats 
and wheat. Another great resource is our inexhaust- 
ible supply of timber such as walnut, ash, oak, gum, 
hickory, elm, and maple. Cattle raising can be pursued 
here to great profit, and after carefully thinking over 
the question of good investment, the writer sees in 
Vian a veritable bonanza for the man of the future. 

Albert S. Morley. 



—170- 



Vinita 

Vinita is the gateway city of what will be the new 
state of Oklahoma. Situated on the mail line of 
the Frisco and Katy Systems, it has sixteen through 
passenger trains daily. More people pass through 
Vinita into the Southwest than through any other 
town in either territory. 

Vinita is one of the oldest towns in the Territory, 
and one of the most firmly founded. The town has 
never had a boom nor a period of mushroom growth. 
It has more money per capita than any other city 
in either territory. Its population is close to four 
thousand now, and it is just entering upon a period 
of rapid growth that will make it one of the largest 
cities in the Territory. 

The city has, as before remarked, the main lines of 
the Frisco and Katy Systems to the southwest, which 
cross here. In addition, a third road, the Vinita & 
Western, is now under construction to Coffeyville, 
Kansas, and Bartlesville, Indian Territory, tapping the 
large coal fields only ten miles north of town. Both 
the Frisco and Katy have in the past few months built 
new stations here, and both arc now making exten- 
sive improvements in their yards. It is at this city that 

-171- 



the fast mail from St. Louis is transferred by the 
Frisco to the Katy, which carries it south to Texas 
points. Its railroad facilities are therefore unexcelled, 
thus making the town a certain distributing center as 
the country roundabout is developed. 

Vinita has a complete waterworks and sewer sys- 
tem, the water being supplied from artesian wells six 
hundred feet deep. It is absolutely pure. The city is 
the seat of the United States court for the Northern 
judicial district, and the home of both judges, J. A. 
Gill and L. F. Parker, Jr. It has been designated as 
one of the towns for the holding of United States 
court under statehood. 

Numerous business blocks are now in course of 
construction, the business men have just let the con- 
tract for brick paving for the entire business district, 
and many other improvements are under way. The 
city has churches of all denominations, good public 
schools, and is the seat of Willie Halsell college, a 
M'ethodist School. It is pre-eminently a city of homes, 
no other town in the Territory excelling it in 
this respect. 

It is situated at the eastern edge of the oil and gas 
field ,and many of the most successful operators in the 
Cherokee Nation live here. It is said, in fact, that 
the stock of more producing wells is owned here than 
in any other city in the Territory. Gas exists to the 
west a short distance and applications for a gas fran- 
chise have been received, which are held up pending 
the drilling of a well by the Commercial Club. Coal 
of excellent quality exists in immense quantity just 

—172- 



north of the city. To the east and southeast are ex- 
cellent zinc and lead prospects. All about is the 
finest of agricultural land. Fruit and poultry farm- 
ing has hardly been touched upon yet, but the accessi- 
bility of this city to both St. Louis and Kansas City 
will make this a great center for small farming. 

No town in the Southwest has better prospect? 
than Vinita. With cheap fuel, fine railroad facilities, 
an excellent location, progressive citizens, and sur- 
rounded by a rich mineral and agricultural country, 
Vinita is bound to grow rapidly. All inquiries in 
regard to conditions will be gladly answered by the 
secretary of the Commercial Club. 

R. M. McClintock. 



—173- 



Wagoner 



The recent statehood edition of the Kansas City 
Journal says: 

"Wagoner has the brightest prospects of any city 
in the Creek Nation. It is given up that the country 
supporting Wagoner is the richest in the whole Ter- 
ritory and it will produce one and one-half bales of 
cotton and seventy bushels of corn to the acre. The 
climate is delightful, being far enough north to escape 
the burning rays of a tropical sun, far enough south 
to avoid the frigid winters of the north and far enough 
east to be safely within the rain belt. There is no 
place in the world where better health is enjoyed than 
in this faultless climate." 

Wagoner is situated at the junction of the M. K. 
& T. Railroad, Iron Mountain Railroad, and the M. 
O. & G. Railroad and work will begin within ninety 
days in Wagoner on the El Paso, Mountain Park & 
St. Louis Railroad. This will give Wagoner the best 
railroad facilities of any city in the Indian Territory 
and its future as a railroad center and commercial 
metropolis will be determined. 

-VJ4r- 



Wagoner is already modern. It has the finest sys- 
tem of water works in the Southwest, the water being 
brought from Grand River, a distance of nearly six 
miles; a modern system of electric lights, telephones, 
ice plant, steam laundry, fluoring mill, brick plant, 
bottling works, large stave factory, a $100,000 oil mill, 
two cotton gins two daily and three weekly news- 
papers. There are eight distinct church organizations 
in Wagoner and the school facilities are unequaled 
by any city in the Territory. There are four magnifi- 
cent brick buildings owned and occupied by the school 
district and about twenty teachers are employed. 
Pupils graduated from our high school are admitted 
to the Kansas, Missouri, and other state universi- 
ties without examination. 

Wagoner is one of the regular federal court towns 
in the Indian Territory. Three terms of this court 
are held annually. The court house is one of the 
finest in the Territory. A United States commis- 
sioner's court is also held here. 

It is generally conceded that in the neighborhood 
of Wagoner is to be found the best agricultural lands 
in the Territory. We can raise as much corn, wheat, 
and oats as can be raised in the North and East and 
upon ground that will only cost about one-third the 
price asked for and obtained for the same quality in 
the states. We can raise twice as much grass cutting 

—175— 



two good crops every year. We raise two large crops 
of potatoes every year, the first crop maturing in June 
at a time when the highest prices are always obtain- 
able. For vegetables and stock raising, owing to the 
short, mild winters, cheap and abundant feed. We be- 
lieve our farm lands will double in price in a very 
short time. For further information address, 

S. R. CowiCK^ 
Secretary Wagoner Board of Trade. 



—176— 



Wapanucka 



Wapanucka is a town of about eight hundred 
people located in the western portion of the Choctaw 
Nation on the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Rail- 
way. It is surrounded by good farming country, and 
the town is in a prosperous condition. It needs a good 
class of farmers to till the vacant land surrounding and 
capital to develop the town. 



177- 



Weleetka 

Weleetka is one of the new towns in the Indian 
Territory, having been opened on February the 10th, 
1902. It is near the center of the Creek Nation on the 
North Canadian River, a swift, clear running stream, 
and from the river the town received its name, as the 
word Weleetka is a Creek word signifying "Running 
water." The same river has built El Reno, Oklahoma 
City, and Shawnee, three of the best cities in Okla- 
homa Territory. And from its bottom lands, and the 
uplands tributaries, this town, next year will market, 
at least, 7000 bales of cotton. 

Weleetka has two cotton gins, a stave mill, elec- 
tric light and water systems and a forty ton ice plant 
will be built this summer. A large cotton seed oil 
mill, one of the best in the Indian Territory, has been 
in operation for a year and a half, and the ground is 
now being made ready for a large cotton compress. 
The town during the summer, will build a $12,500 
school building, and already three church edifices, a 
Christian, a Baptist, and a South Methodist have been 
erected, and the members of the Episcopal and North 
Methodist Churches are making their arrangements 
to build. 

—178- 



A glance at the map will show that the North 
Canadian River comes within two miles of the town 
on the west, and then detours for thirty miles and 
returns to the east edge of the townsite, thus making 
possible a canal across this neck which will give the 
water a sheer fall of ninety feet, and develop a water 
power of 7500 horse power. This matter has been 
thoroughly surveyed by a strong company, and 
Chicago capitalists have practically agreed to finance 
the scheme. This means cheap water power and a 
large manufacturing town. Just now Weleetka is en- 
joying a building boom, and a number of good business 
houses and homes are going up. Weleetka has two 
railroads, the Saint Louis and San Francisco and the 
Fort Smith and Western. 

J. M. Pemberton^ 

Mayor. 



—179- 



West vi He 

Westville is located at the junction of the Kansas 
City Southern and the Ozark and Cherokee Central 
branch of the Frisco Railroads in the Cherokee Na- 
tion, Indian Territory, about two miles west of the 
Arkansas State line and has an elevation of 1137 feet 
above sea level. 

The location of the town is favorably located, 
owing to a large scope of fertile country surrounding 
it, and the obstacles of land titles are practically re- 
moved, the land has been alloted to the Indians and 
the restrictions have, a great many, been removed, the 
townsite has been appraised and sold under the super- 
vision of the Secretary of the Interior and good titles 
can be given to lots, the population is now about 1,000, 
and its resources are sufficient when developed to 
maintain a population of 4,000. 

The country is especially well watered, fine springs 
abound, and wells furnish plenty of pure water at shal- 
low depths, the seasons are regular, it being situated 
in the rain belt of the United States, droughts are 
unknown. The immediate country around Westville 

—180— 



is thinly settled on account of heretofore conditions 
of land titles. 

The town is favorably located for manufacturing 
interest, and also as a commercial center, two different 
lines of railroad in the town, giving direct connection 
with the large markets of tRe south and west. 

We need an electric light plant, a cold storage, 
waterworks, and many other industries to give employ- 
ment to the coming population. 

A person can make no mistake in making invest- 
ments in Westville, and any inquiries will be answered 
by writing to 

R. H. Couch, 



—181- 



Wetumka 

«» 

Wetumka, Indian Territory, is situated midway 
between Okmulgee on the north and Ada on the south 
on the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad, surrounded 
by the bottoms of the North Canadian River and the 
Wewoka Creek. 

Wetumka has a population of about fifteen hun- 
dred people, good public school system, twenty-eight 
brick and stone business houses, three banks, three cot- 
ton gins, cigar factory, and Presidential Post office. 
Wetumka markets about seven thousand bales of cot- 
ton each season. Lots of corn, hogs, and cattle are 
shipped from this point. This is an ideal farming 
country. 

Wetumka needs an electric plant, water works, 
and brick and tile plant. There is no doubt that this 
country is underlaid with coal, oil and gas. There is 
no better fruit and vegetable country in the south- 
west. This is the home of the apple. Blackberries 
and strawberries grow wild all over this country. The 
Canadian Valley is a world beater for Irish potatoes. 
Wetumka is situated within the rain belt, no hot winds, 
no blizzards and an ideal climate. This soil produces 
as much as one and one-half bales of cotton per acre 
and as high as sixty to eighty bushels of corn. 

P. P. Deenford, 

Mayor. 
—182— 



Wewoka 

This is the principal town of the Seminole Nation 
and is the capital of said nation. It is a court town 
and has a population of eight hundred — is located on 
the main line of the Rock Island Railroad running 
from Memphis to Oklahoma City. 



--183— 



Wilburton 

Wilburton is the seventh city in population in the 
Indian Territory, and holds fourth place in the Choc- 
taw Nation, according to the figures recently sent out 
by the Indian Agents Office. We have a population 
of 5,500 people — counting those just outside the city 
there are between 7,000 and 8,000 that can be included 
within the city limits as soon as the bill now before 
Congress permits the corporate limits to be extended. 

The tgwn is in the center of one of the richest coal 
fields in the world and there are every day more than 
3,000 tons of coal billed out on the Rock Island Rail- 
road alone^ In addition to being on the main line of 
the Rock Island from Memphis to Amarillo, Texas, 
the M., K. & T. have recently completed the Wil- 
burton Extension. Here the Rock Island has one of 
the best paying stations between Oklahoma City and 
Memphis and the very best between Little Rock and 
South McAlester. The city has a splendid system of 
public schools, well organized, graded and supported 
by city taxation. A high school has been organized 
and one years work will be finished in June. Along 
with the schools there are churches of almost every 
denomination, there being services regularly at nine 
churches each Sunday. 

—184- 



The system of electric lights and waterworks are 
among the very best in the southwest. The pressure 
afforded by a stand pipe at an extreme elevation gives 
at once the best fire protection, together with a well 
organized and equipped fire company of any city irf the 
Territory. 

Wilburton has a hustling lot of merchants, a well 
organized Commercial Club which is alwyas looking 
to the best interests of the town ; a fine lot of profes- 
sional men, and these together with the highly in- 
telligent citizenship make the city a desireable place 
for a progressive man, who wants a clean place and 
decent town in which he may rear his family^ The 
best opportunities are offered the farmers of large or 
small capital. The valley prairie, and upland afford 
every opportunity for farming and truck gardening 
and there is the best opportunity in the world for men 
who will come here and engage in not only farming 
on a large scale, but who will raise garden stuff, poul- 
try, etc. Today nearly all these things are shipped 
from Arkansas, Oklahoma and Kansas. The large 
Urban population, and mining interests bring large 
numbers to the city and these must all be supplied. 

With fertile soil, abundant rainfall, mineral re- 
sources and timber, every opportunity is afforded to 
the investor and settler. The Indian Territory is the 
land of opportunity and there are ten chances to one in 
the states to get a start, make good honest invest- 
ments, and there is no better place in the Territory 
than Wilburton. I have found that where I could 
make four per cent to eight on money in Kansas I can 

—185— 



make from twelve to twenty-five per cent here, and 
have made as high as fifty and seventy-five per cent 
in less than six months. Both farm and city property 
are good investments and with a little money and a 
little hustle any one can do well. 

The United States Commissioner's Court is held 
here and we expect a sitting of the Federal Court by 
early spring. This together with a fine opera house, 
churches, schools, city hall, splendid brick buildings, 
broad streets, forest trees, make a pleasant and inviting 
city. There are today five brick buildings either in 
course of construction or just finished. 

You are invited to share our hospitality and suc- 
cess. 

J. G. Masters^ 
Superintendent of City Schools. 



-186— 



Wister 

Wister is in the Choctaw Nation at the junction 
of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific and Frisco 
Systems. It has a population of two hundred. Is 
surrounded by a fair farming country which supports 
one big credit store and several small establishments. 
When the country is developed around here Wister 
should make a good little town. 



-187- 



Wynnewood 



This thriving and prosperous city of 3,500 in- 
habitants is located partly upon a level plateau and 
partly upon a range of hills that overlook the fertile 
valley of the Washita on the west. It is one of the 
prettiest towns in the Chickasaw Nation as well aa 
being one of the most healthy to be found in the Indian 
Territory. As for its location none excel it. The rich 
valley of the Washita River melts away in the deep 
blue of earth's horizon on the west, while to the east 
stretches miles of the most fertile prairie lands in the 
Nation. Really as good as the vast reaches of land 
that stretch away on the north and south of the city. 

It is from this unlimited amount of fine farm 
lands that Wynnewood derives the greatest amount oi 
its support. As high as twenty-five thousand bales 
of cotton have been shipped from this place in one 
year, the amount varying as the crop is good or bad. 
In the summer great amount of small grain is market- 
ed here and shipped away. 

As to its industries it ranks well with the first- 
class cities in the Territory. It has two banks with 
resources aggregating $300,000.00. A $75,000.00 oil 
mill, two lumber yards, three large hardware stores, 

—188- 



one furniture store occupying an entire block, ten dry 
good stores, seven grocery stores, one shoe store, five 
drug stores, three livery barns, four hotels and several 
boarding houses, three restaurants, one bakery and 
numerous confectionery stores and minor businesses 
that are characteristic of such a thriving and pros- 
perous city. It has four cotton gins that run day and 
night through the cotton season. Its oil mill runs day 
and night for five months in the year working sixty 
men, 

Wynnewood has for several years had and well 
maintained the name of being the educational center 
of the Territory. It is the seat of the Indianola Sy- 
nodical College, the property of this institution being 
valued at $75,000.00. In addition to the college there 
is a large girls' dormitory accommodating about forty 
girls. There are six highly educated teachers in the 
faculty of the college. 

In the central part of the city stands one of the 
best public school buildings to be found in any city 
on the Santa Fe Railroad in the Territory. Seven 
hundred children of the city are being educated here 
yearly. The faculty of the public school is composed 
of ten of the best teachers that can be obtained. The 
term is nine months. 

It has four churches all of which are supplied with 
pastors and have Sunday Schools with a large at- 
tendance. Each church has a good membership. The 
pastors of these churches are paid from $700.00 to 
$1,100.00 each. 

People are rapidly coming here and establishing 
—189- 



new businesses and new enterprises. New brick build- 
ings are erected every year as well as brick residences. 
Within the past year about ten handsome and expen- 
sive residences have been built; some are now under 
construction, while the contract for many others has 
been let. 

Last, but not least, among its enterprises is the 
Wynnewood New Era, a weekly paper that has fought 
valiantly for the city along every line. Through its 
efforts an election was called this year and water 
works and electric light bonds were voted and a water 
works and light plant is now under construction. 



—190— 



The Law Pertaining: to the 
Sale and Leasing of Land. 

It is not intended in this article to give anything 
but facts in a very concise v^ay. There are many 
things of a romantic nature that could be written and 
the writer would be justified, for no country has ever 
been transformed like this in such a short time, and 
it has been done apparently without a hitch. A few 
years ago no one w^ho knew the conditions ever had 
the remotest idea that the white man could so soon 
obtain good title to land, but we are now at the time 
when you can get as good title in the Indian Territory 
to a certain part of the land as you can obtain in any 
of the states, and in this article it is expected to tell 
you just exactly how that can be done. 

Several years ago the Congress of the United 
States came to the conclusion that there, should be a 
change in the Indian Territory relative to the methods 
of holding lands ; that the Indian should hold his land 
in severalty. At that time they held it in common 
and each Indian could hold as much land as he could 
enclose and consequently the rich Indian soon had 
most all of the best land and was driving the poorer 
class back into the interior. Recognizing these facts 

-191— 



the president was directed by an act of Congress about 
the year of 1893 to appoint a commission known as 
the Dawes Commission to come to the Indian Ter- 
ritory and treat with the Indians and they came here 
and finally made certain treaties with them and in 
these treaties it was agreed that they would take their 
proportionate parts of the land in severalty. Since 
that time Congress has enacted laws allowing certain 
parts of the land to be sold. 



-192— 



Choctaw and Chicasaw 
Nations 

In the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations each 
Indian receives three hundred and twenty acres of 
average land. That is, some Indians receive less and 
some more than that amount of acres. The land is all 
graded and they receive acres according to the value 
of the land they are alloted. After they get their 
patents for their land they can sell forty acres of 
average land in one year, forty acres more in three 
years and eighty acres more in five years. Many of the 
Indians have already received their patents. There 
were many white men who married Indian women 
and likewise, many white women who married Indian 
men and those who married Choctaw and Chickasaw 
Indians under the treaties and laws obtained citizen- 
ship in the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations and re- 
ceive their allotment of land just the same as Indians 
by blood. These citizens, known as inter-married 
citizens, can sell their surplus allotment at any time, 
which is one hundred and sixty acres of average land. 



-193- 



Creek Nation 



In the Creek Nation about one-third of the citizens 
of the nation are Negroes and are known as Freedmen. 
These Negroes were held as slaves by the Indians and 
under the laws and treaties they were entitled to 
participate in the allotment and they can sell their 
surplus allotment of one htmdred and twenty acres. 
The Indian by blood can sell his surplus allotment by 
filing his petition with the Indian Agent at Muskogee 
and the agent will appraise his land and advertise for 
sealed bids, but the land will not be sold unless the 
bid is as much or more than the appraisement. 



—194— 



Cherokee Nation 

The Cherokee Indian gets eighty acres of average 
land which also includes the Cherokee Freedman. The 
Freedman can sell fifty acres of his allotment but the 
Cherokee Indian by blood cannot sell any of his land 
except under the law and regulations hereafter treated. 



—195— 



Seminole Nation 

No one can make good title to land in the Seminole 
Nation unless it be the Seminole Freedman who might 
sell his surplus allotment. This has never been de- 
cided by the courts but quite a number of the best 
lawyers think it very doubtful. 



-196- 



Removal of Restrictions 

Under a law enacted by Congress the Indians in 
all of the Nations can seli their surplus land by the 
consent of the Secretary of the Interior. They make 
their application to him through the Indian Agent 
and if the Secretary of the Interior is of the opinion 
that it would be to the interest of the Indian he wiil 
remove the restrictions on the sale of the Indian's sur- 
plus allotment. 

The restrictions have been removed from thous- 
ands of acres of land giving the Indian money to im- 
prove his homestead. 



-197- 



Leases 

Five year leases can be obtainecf on all the land 
that has been alloted, provided the leases are for 
agricultural purposes. This is the longest period that 
land can be leased. This five year lease law applies 
to all the Nations in the Indian Territory. 



-198- 



The Kansas City 

Southern Railway 

Company 

If you are seeking a location for the purpose of 

OPENING A FARM 
PLANTING AN ORCHARD, 

RAISING COMMERCIAL TRUCK, 
RAISING CATTLE, HOGS, 
HORSES OR SHEEP. 

Of to establish fruit and vegetable canneries, manufacture 
lumber, quarry marble, slate, mine lead or zinc, or mine 
coal, establish brick yards, flouring mills, grist mills, cotton 
gins, creameries of manufactories of any kind, or engage in 
mercantile business be sure and visit the towns of 

WESTVILLE, STILLWELL, 

MARBLE CITY. SALISAW, 

REDLAND, SPIRO, 

PANAMA, SHADY POINT, 

POTEAU, HOWE or 

HEAVENER 

All on the K. C. S* Railway, and write for rates and other 
information to — 

S. G. WARNER, G. P. A. 

105 THAYER BUILDING, 

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI. 



L6Jl'17 



